The Government’s decision to denotify nearly 6.34 lakh hectares of deemed forest and reduce its quantum from 9.94 lakh hectares to 3.3 lakh hectares has been described as a questionable move that goes against the grain of conservation.
Experts and conservationists who have studied the GO on the denotification have also questioned the basis on which the Forest Department arrived at the figure of 6.34 lakh hectares for denotification. It has also been critiqued on the grounds that the Government was legalising large-scale encroachment.
For instance, the GO has argued that totaling and conversion error had led to wrong estimation and this was pegged at 82,089.96 hectares. Seeking details of the survey on the basis of which the figures were arrived, the conservationists pointed out that 27,604.61 hectares had been written off and denotified on the grounds that there was repetition of the survey numbers.
Besides, 43,357.50 hectares has been denotified on the ground that government land was not available in the survey numbers and activists have argued that it could mean the government turned a blind eye to encroachment ever since the first survey by the Reconstituted Expert Committee-1 submitted its report on deemed forests way back in 2002.
The report filed by the Reconstituted Expert Committee defined deemed forests as land with the characteristic of the forests, irrespective of the ownership and this included thickly wooded areas with the Revenue Department but not handed over to the Forest Department. Even the C&D class lands which is handed over to the Forest Department can be treated as deemed forests and the deemed forest area in the State was pegged at 9,94,881 hectares.
More than 1.35 lakh hectares of reserve forest was wrongly included under deemed forest category and its omission is not being questioned as the area will still remain under the Forest Department.
But the GO dated May 5, 2022, states that more than 1.62 lakh hectares of land is being denotified and removed from the class of deemed forest status as it does not have more than 50 trees per hectare.
This raises questions about the efficacy of the afforestation measures taken by the authorities all these years and amounts to admitting its failure, according to the conservationists.
