Assam’s commando camp in reserved Geleky forest violated law, will take action, Environment Ministry admits before NGT

The ministry’s affidavit was filed in a case being heard by the NGT’s eastern bench on the construction of a commando camp on 28 hectares of reserved forest land in the Geleky forest in Assam’s Sivasagar district. The affidavit was filed after the bench, in August, directed the ministry to indicate as to what action was taken against Assam’s senior forest officer M K Yadava for diversion of forest land in violation of forest conservation law.

“It is submitted that said SIR (site inspection report) has been examined in the answering ministry and prima facie it has been observed that the non-forestry activities have been allowed without prior approval of the Central Government on the forest land in question which is in contravention of the statutory provisions rules of Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980,” the ministry’s affidavit stated.

It added, “That taking into account the site inspection report (SIR), the answering Ministry vide letter dated 28.08.2024 requested its regional office, Shillong to initiate action in the instant matter as prescribed under section 3A and 3B of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, as appropriate. Moreover, the answering Ministry vide letter dated 28.08.2024 also requested the state government to stop and discontinue any kind of activities forthwith in the forest area in question.”

The ministry based its conclusions on a site inspection carried out in August by its regional office in Shillong. According to the site inspection report, large-scale construction for the camp was underway in full swing and it was permanent in nature. The construction work had no resemblance to activities allowed for forest protection under the Adhiniyam, the inspection report stated.

The NGT’s eastern bench had also constituted a committee of senior environment ministry officials to probe the matter. The ministry said in its affidavit that the committee had visited the commando campsite on September 27 and sought time till the end of October to submit its report.

In August, the Assam government had submitted to NGT in an affidavit that the battalion camp construction was being done to secure the forests in Geleky from encroachers and thus it was for forest conservation and management. The Assam government has also sought an ex post facto clearance from the environment ministry, however, it has not been granted yet as the ministry is still examining the issue.

The NGT did not accept the state government’s submissions in the last hearing on August 9 and had noted in its order, “…we are of the view that it is not for the PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator of Forest) Assam to take a decision as to whether the strong constructions for 800 personnel with arms, ammunitions and sophisticated weapons would impact forest conservation or not since the decision in such a case has to be taken by the Central Government in view of the mandatory statutory requirement of Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.”