Bais opens forest to ‘development’

In just 10 days, some important decisions have been taken that not only threaten the existence of our forests but are in direct contraventio...

In just 10 days, some important decisions have been taken that not only threaten the existence of our forests but are in direct contravention of Supreme Court directives. Nearly 34,000 hectares of forest land have been given away for developmental projects and nearly 2,000 villages in forests would soon get pattas.

One, it was decided today that all encroachments in forest lands by Adivasis till 1993 will be regularised. Two, states will have more powers to clear projects in forest land. Three, individual projects languishing for five-20 years have been re-examined and cleared.

All of this is 10 days of work for Ramesh Bais, the new Minister of State for Environment and Forest.

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The SC has put a ban on regularisation of encroachments in its interim order in IA 703. It has also been clear on de-reserving of any reserved forest in its order dated November 2000.

‘‘We will have to tell the Supreme Court but this is not in contravention of the Court,’’ said Bais. He did not deny some projects had been held up for political reasons. Paikara Hydroelectric project was not cleared for the last five years till T.R. Baalu was the minister. It has been cleared considering that Jayalalithaa has of late found favour with BJP.

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