NGT TERMS PLOT MARKED FOR HOUSING SCHEME ‘DEEMED FOREST’

HT HAD REPORTED ON FEB 22 THAT THE UNION ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY HAD CONTRADICTED THE FINDINGS OF ITS REGIONAL OFFICE’S INQUIRY REPORT IN NGT

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has held that a 52-acre plot in Sarai Khwaja village of Haryana’s Faridabad district is a “deemed forest” — a ruling that has potential implications for a real estate development in the area and similar projects coming up on such sites elsewhere.

The National Green Tribunal said that going by the definition of a forest, the plot should be deemed as one.

The Haryana forest department and the regional office of the Union environment ministry had ruled in the past that the land may not be listed as a forest in records.

The Haryana government had permitted the felling of over 7,000 trees in the village for a housing project by Bharti Land Limited.

Despite the Haryana forest department acknowledging the area is a forest on past occasions, the additional chief secretary (forests) directed the department in June 2017 to permit the project.

The National Green Tribunal said the view was “based on erroneous understanding of law. It is wrongly assumed that in absence of the area being ‘recorded as forest’ in the revenue record, the same cannot be taken as ‘forest.’”