MoEFCC panel says ‘no’ to housing projects on pvt forest lands

Nagpur: The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), a statutory body under the MoEFCC, has said ‘no' to residential projects on private forest lands, and recently deferred a proposal from Thane in Maharashtra.The state's nodal officer, despite strongly advocating a builder's pleas for a residential colony on 10.685 hectares of private forest land in Walshet, Thane district, faced rejection from the FAC. The consolidated guidelines issued under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, provide that the utilization of forest areas for establishing industries, construction of residential colonies, institutes, rehabilitation of displaced persons etc are non-site-specific activities and cannot be considered on forest land as a rule."The central govt will not entertain any proposal for the diversion of forest land for the construction of residential or dwelling houses. However, the govt has accorded permission for the construction of residential houses in their private forest lands for construction of residential or dwelling houses in the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) areas of Uttarakhand as well as the private area (deemed forest) of Goa, subject to certain conditions," the FAC states.The construction activities in Uttarakhand and Goa on private forest lands are restricted to a maximum of 250 sq m of built-up area in each case. However, this rule is not applicable in Maharashtra.The nodal officer of Maharashtra stressed that the FAC in the past considered such approvals on a case-to-case basis on private forest lands. However, the panel members clarified that after the new notification of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, the regional offices have not been considering such proposals.The FAC has made it clear that the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam 1980, rules made thereunder, and guidelines shall be applicable in toto, and no relaxation concerning the applicability of site specificity may be claimed by any user agency instead of providing non-forest land for compensatory afforestation (CA) and payment of the net present value (NPV) as was done earlier.The FAC suggested that in case the Maharashtra govt wants to submit a proposal concerning the diversion of private forest lands, a detailed proposal with complete justification, particularly on-site specificity, may be submitted to the Union environment ministry. All such proposals shall be dealt with as per the rules and guidelines in place and orders of the Supreme Court, on a case-to-case basis.
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