Govt.'s stand is confusing

By P. Venugopal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 29. The Antony Government's commitment to the cause of forest conservation stands exposed by the dual stand it is adopting on the subject of protecting the private forests taken over under the lapsed Forest Ordinance.

The Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Forest Lands) Ordinance, 2001, promulgated and re-promulgated by the Nayanar Government without being replaced by a legislation, had lapsed in July, this year.

Under the provisions of this Ordinance, more than 24,000 acres of private forests were identified as `ecologically fragile forest lands' and vested with the Government. Whenever the topic came up for discussion, the Chief Minister, Mr. A.K. Antony, and the Forest Minister, Mr. K. Sudhakaran, had been maintaining that the UDF Government would be introducing a legislation to reactivate the provisions of the Ordinance after ensuring proper protection to the interests of small and marginal farmers.

When the Adivasi-Dalit Action Council leader, Ms. C.K. Janu, recently raised the issue of the Government's `compassionless attitude' towards the tribals and compared it with the `consideration' always being shown towards usurpers of tribal land and encroachers of forest land, Mr. Antony had declared that protecting forests was one of the top priorities of his Government.

He had used the occasion to proclaim the intention of his Government to protect the 24,000-odd acres of private forests vested with the Government under the provisions of this year's Ordinance. These assurances notwithstanding, the Government, this week, revealed in the Kerala High Court that it had no intention to retain under its control the forest lands taken over under the provisions of the lapsed Ordinance. This deposition had come from the Government Pleader during the hearing of a writ petition filed by a private company challenging an order issued on July 12 by the Forest Secretary.

If one were to go by the Forest Secretary's order of July 12, the Government's stand is that, notwithstanding the lapsing of the Ordinance, the status of the properties which got vested under the Ordinance would be maintained as `reserved forests' under the full control of the Government.

Top sources in the Law Department also state that this was the stand the Government had wanted to take in the court. They said that there was even a Supreme Court verdict clarifying that ``action taken under an Ordinance issued by the Government would be deemed as valid even if the Ordinance had ceased to exist unless it had been invalidated by a subsequent Ordinance or legislation.''

However, when the case came up in the High Court, the Government had, surprisingly, taken a position directly opposed to the advice which had gone from Thiruvananthapuram. The upshot is that more than 24,000 acres of ecologically fragile forest lands will now have to be returned to private parties to be dwelt with as they please. A top official said felling of the trees in such lands has already commenced in right earnest in many parts of Wayanad and Palakkad districts.

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Section  : Southern States
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