Police camps in forest: NGT seeks Assam, Centre’s response over green nod

A bench, headed by NGT chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and comprising judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member A Senthil Vel, issued the directions in a suo motu matter pertaining to construction of Assam police commando battalion camp by diverting 44 hectares of forest land in Hailakandi district.

“Learned Counsel for the proposed intervenor has also raised an issue that no EC (environmental clearance) has been obtained for the project. It will be open to respondents State of Assam and MoEF&CC to file supplementary affidavits in this regard,” said the NGT order on April 7, which was made public Wednesday.

During the hearing Monday, advocate Parul Gupta, appearing for Assam-based intervenor Rohit Choudhury, submitted before the bench that the construction in Hailakandi should attract provisions of the Environment Impact Notification (EIA), 2006, due to its large expanse.

Under the EIA notification, buildings and constructions of 20,000 sq km and above need prior permissions before starting work. In response to the submission, the bench has sought the Assam and central governments’ views on the matter.

The NGT bench also pulled up the Environment Ministry and sought to know action taken against the violation of forest conservation laws over construction of the camp.

Last year, the Environment Ministry’s regional office in Shillong had said that M K Yadava, currently serving as a Special Secretary (Forest) on extension in the Assam government, was “deemed guilty” under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, and was liable for punishment for directing use of forest land for non-forestry purposes without prior approvals from Centre.

“It’s a case of flagrant violation of the law, section 2 has been violated in clear terms,” Justice Shrivastava had said.

Justice Agarwal said, “Just last week in the Vrindavan matter, the Supreme Court has imposed the environmental compensation, computing at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per tree. Here, thousands of trees have been cut.”

Two police battalion camps — one in Hailakandi district and another in Sivasagar district on Geleky reserve forest — were probed by the Environment Ministry for carrying out constructions without prior approvals under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam.

In February this year, the Environment Ministry regularised both police camps after its Forest Advisory Committee granted ex-post facto clearances while imposing penalties.

Site-inspections by the Environment Ministry’s Shillong office had found contravention of the Van Adhiniyam in both instances. As per the Shillong office site inspection report for Hailakandi, permanent structures were constructed on 11.5 hectares of land including residential buildings, mess, small hospital, school and community centre.

While the NGT principal bench is hearing the violations pertaining to Hailakandi forest, the eastern bench in Kolkata is hearing a plea on diversion of Geleky forest in Sivasagar district.