SC halts conversion of 8.64sqkm of private forest land in Goa

Panaji: Supreme Court, in an interim relief on Monday, directed state govt not to issue any further conversion sanads to 855 identified and demarcated survey numbers as private forest by the Thomas and Araujo committees. This will stop the conversion of a total of 8.64sqkm of private forest land in Goa.
“We grant time of four weeks to the respondent to file a counter affidavit. In the meanwhile, no further conversion sanad shall be issued in respect of the lands mentioned in prayer clause (a),” the division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said. The matter is likely to come up for hearing on March 28.
Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation said that prayer clause (a) reads: “Pending final disposal of the civil appeal, for an order directing status quo to be maintained on all the 855 survey nos (whole or sub-division numbers) that are listed as finally identified and demarcated private forest by the Thomas and Araujo Committees in their reports dated Dec 10, 2018, and Dec 28, 2018.”
State govt appointed two expert committees headed by former foresters V T Thomas and Francisco Araujo in 2012. These two committees were disbanded in March 2018, but submitted their final reports in Dec 2018.
Both the committees, after field visits and ground demarcation, together identified a total of 8.64sqkm of private forests as “final” in both North and South Goa. The rest of the areas identified were marked “provisional”, awaiting further visits and confirmation.
Senior advocate Norma Alvares for Goa Foundation said, “The court held that no trees had been cut, but conversion sanads were being issued, which was a prelude to tree felling."
She showed SC the conversion sanad issued to the Bhutani project at Sancoale. "The plot was identified as a private forest by the expert committee," Goa Foundation said in a statement.
State govt, however, insisted that the review committee would treat all the plots identified as “provisional”. The Goa Foundation took the matter to the NGT, and thereafter, in appeal, to the Supreme Court.
On March 3, Supreme Court heard the IA filed by the Goa Foundation for a status quo order on all survey numbers marked “final” in the two expert reports.
In the main civil appeal, which has also been admitted for hearing by the Supreme Court, the Goa Foundation challenged the order of the NGT rejecting the Goa Foundation’s contentions that the review committee could not re-examine the plots identified as “final” by the two expert committees.