The Hindu : Karnataka News : Petition against felling trees disposed of

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Karnataka

Petition against felling trees disposed of

Special Correspondent

Court issues directions to GCA, Environment Ministry

PANAJI: The Bombay High Court at Goa has directed that unless the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) obtains all clearances and permissions, no trees shall be cut on the forest land which is part of the land being acquired for construction of a stadium at Thivim in north Goa.

A two-member Bench, comprising Justice A.S. Oka and Justice F.M. Reis, on August 12 disposed of a public interest litigation petition and directed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), which has initiated an inquiry into the issue of forest clearance, to consider the representation of the petitioners on all the issues raised in the petition.

The petition was filed by the Goa Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, and three farmers from Thivim village, challenging permissions granted by the Ministry to fell a natural forest comprising 2,500 trees for a stadium project.

The judgment also records the undertaking given by the GCA that no part of the forest land shall be used for constructing any type of commercial project, including malls, hotels, etc.

The Goa Foundation and farmers Uday Mavlankar, Gorak Mavlankar and Ashok Kuttu Parab had, in April this year, challenged the forest clearance granted to the Goa Director of Sports on the grounds that the Forest Conservation Guidelines did not permit such diversion.

‘Not against stadium'

The petitioners stated that while they were not against an international cricket stadium, they were firmly against the felling of 4.4 hectares of forest for purposes of putting up commercial developments.

The petitioners also told the court that the State Town Planning Department had, in 2007, rejected a no-objection certificate for change of land use under the State Regional Plan 2001 for the proposed stadium as this was against the policy in force. The petitioners alleged that to bypass this order, the Sports Department had filed an application under Section 16/16A of the Town Planning Act for exemption of the project from the Regional Plan. This action was also challenged by the petitioner.

As no order passed on this application was placed before the court by the Goa Government, the court has, in its judgment, permitted the issue to be kept open for adjudication.

The petitioners alleged that over the next three years, the Goa Government continued to give the Ministry the impression that the cricket stadium was a State Government project.

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