The Hindu : Front Page : Hectic efforts on to assign forestland to bigwigs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 28, 2005

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Hectic efforts on to assign forestland to bigwigs

P. Venugopal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Assembly elections hardly seven months away, hectic efforts are on in the Government to assign as much forestland as possible to individuals wielding political clout, bypassing the legal stipulation that it can be done only with the concurrence of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy convened a meeting of top officials of the departments of Revenue, Forest and Law here on Thursday to discuss how these assignments can be done. Revenue Minister K.M. Mani, Forest Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and Advocate General M. Ratna Singh also attended the meeting.

The proposed land assignments fall in the Mankulam area, near Munnar in Idukki district, where the Revenue Department has large tracts of undulating grasslands and sholas in its possession. The meeting also discussed the question of extending the leases over certain forest tracts in Nelliyampathy in Palakkad district and the Cardamom Hill Reserve in Idukki district.

The land assignment idea and the lease extension proposal have the full support of the Revenue Department. Its note circulated at the meeting strongly argues the case and attacks the Forest Department for placing ecological interests above the needs of `social welfare.' With the Forest Department pointing out the legal consequences of assigning the forestland or extending the lease over the forests without the explicit approval of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, the meeting decided to constitute a four-member committee to study all aspects of the issue and recommend what the Government should do. The Advocate General and the secretaries for Revenue, Forest and Law are on the committee. It was asked to submit its report to the Government as fast as possible.

Mankulam has become a prime area with a very high land value because of the tourism boom in Munnar. The tract that the Revenue Department wants to assign to individuals forms part of a total extent of 28,500 hectares the Government had taken over from the Kannan Devan Company through the Kannan Devan Hills (Resumption of Lands) Act, 1971. The proposal now is to assign nearly 1,000 hectares of such lands of high biodiversity value to individuals who have lined up to make a killing.

The leases on some of the forest estates of Nelliyampathy and the Cardamom Hill Reserve have expired or are due to expire shortly.

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