The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Haryana and central authorities to immediately start the process to remove all encroachment from protected forest lands in Anangpur, Ballabhgarh.
The court ordered all the concerned authorities to remove the remaining illegal structures erected after 25th October 1980 on land covered by the special orders and used for non-forest activities without prior approval of the Central government.
The apex court said that the “lands covered by the special orders issued under Section 4 of Punjab Land Preservation Act have all the trappings of forest lands within the meaning of Section 2 of the 1980 Forest Act and, therefore, the state government or competent authority cannot permit its use for non-forest activities without the prior approval of the Central Government.”
The bench of justices AM Khanwilkar, AS Oka and CT Ravikumar also held that the petitioners, which include owners of hotels/banquet halls etc as well as the state government, had tried to give “misleading and fallacious” information to the court.
The national green tribunal in 2013 passed directions to remove encroachments from forest lands, but the order has been challenged in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court also said that the state government tried to give “misleading and fallacious” information to the court in its argument against removing encroachment.
The court rapped the Haryana government for “fallacious and misleading” information on protected forest land in the state and said that the verdict would also create protection for a large part of land in the Aravallis.
This verdict would have a direct impact not only on Anangpur but also on a large part of land across Haryana and Punjab, which had been taken over by construction, mining or industrial activities, as the court noted that “one of the objects of PLPA was to prevent deforestation as the same may result in erosion of soil.”
The government has argued that “if the contentions of some of the intervenors are accepted, the entire districts of Gurugram and Faridabad will be forests within the meaning of Section 2 of 1980 Forest Act.”
The chart given by the government has shown that a total of 39.3% of land in Haryana is protected under various provisions of the PLPA.
The Supreme Court, however, has held that “the picture tried to be projected by the petitioners and the state government is completely misleading and fallacious.”
The court came to this conclusion after analysing the chart and figures submitted by the government.
The court in its verdict has noted that “special orders under Sections 4 and 5 in respect of 22 districts of Haryana including the districts of Gurugram and Faridabad cover only an area of 31,738 hectares, out of a total area of 44,21,200 hectares.”
“In at least 8 districts, not a single land is governed by special orders under Sections 4 and 5. Hence, only about 7.1% of the total land in 22 districts is covered by special orders issued under Sections 4 and 5 of the PLPA,” SC said.
“Going by these figures of the lands covered by the special orders under Section 4 and 5, the percentage of the lands covered by special orders under Section 4 must be insignificant as compared to the total area of the districts,” concluded the court.
The Supreme Court ordered the authorities to remove encroachments within three months.
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