CUTTACK: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notices to multiple government authorities including the secretary Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the chief secretary of the Odisha government and a private company over alleged illegal encroachment of 10.09 acres of forest land in Sripura village of Jharsuguda district.
The direction came recently in response to an application filed by social worker and villager Saroj Kumar Patra, who alleged that the company had occupied forest land recorded as Gramya Jungle Kisam (village forest category) without requisite approvals.
The applicant moved the NGT’s East Zone Bench in Kolkata through advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy under sections 14, 15, and 20 read with section 18(1) and (2) of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, seeking multiple reliefs.
The bench comprising Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi (Judicial Member) and expert member Ishwar Singh observed the case raises substantial questions relating to environment arising out of the implementation of enactments specified in Schedule-I to the NGT Act, 2010.
Accordingly, the bench directed issuance of notices also to the Jharsuguda collector, tehsildar of Jharsuguda, divisional forest officer of Jharsuguda, member secretary, Odisha State Pollution Control Board and deputy director general of forests, integrated regional office, Bhubaneswar, along with the company. The respondents have been granted one month to file their replies with relevant documents. It has been posted to January 8 for further consideration.
The petitioner sought the Tribunal to direct the MoEFCC to withdraw the EC letter dated 6/03/2024 with immediate effect for suppression of facts regarding forest land and further instruct the district collector to restore the forest land and evict the private company from the area.
According to the petition, the private company, in the process of developing its proposed integrated carbon complex, has illegally encroached forest land of Mouza Sripura and used it for constructing an approach road, parking space, and for dumping industrial slags.
It was also alleged that saplings planted by villagers were destroyed during these activities and that no consent of the Sripura gram sabha was obtained, as mandated under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.