CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has dismissed a petition seeking intervention against an order in which the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) had rejected an application for construction of a metallic road over a stretch of village forest (chhota jungle) for connecting the main road.
The division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice BP Routray said, “It is really a sordid state of affair that the area which is included in the village forest is being gradually eroded and diminishing because of the rapid urbanisation. The record of rights has not been corrected nor the conversion has been permitted by a competent authority as of now.”
One Brahmananda Mangaraj filed the petition after BDA rejected the application of local inhabitants of Bhubaneswar tehsil. The bench said the plea sought to be raised was that the mud pathway is used by the local inhabitants being the means of their commutation would not in effect bring any radical changes nor will impact the ecosystem.
Therefore, the authorities should not have taken a conservative view in this regard in rejecting the representation solely on the ground that the stretch of land is recorded as chhota jungle. The petitioner also placed before the court photographs in order to corroborate that there are no trees to be uprooted for the construction of metallic road.
The bench, however, contended, “We would not be incorrect in perceiving the gradual conversion of the forest evident from the photographs produced before us so that at one point of time there would be a complete elimination of the trees, shrubs and the vegetation for which the state and its instrumentality must take a strong decision in this regard.”
The village forests and their conservation are to ensure the equality and balance in the ecosystem and therefore, deforestation by uprooting the trees, shrubs, herbs, and any vegetation which grows naturally, shall have a cascading effect on the climate, which the entire globe is facing, the bench noted.