New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notices to the District Magistrate of Nayagarh and Divisional Forest Officer of Nayagarh on a petition that sought stay on the construction of a road on forest land in the district.
A bench of judicial member B Amit Sthalekar and expert member Saibal Dasgupta held that the matter requires consideration of the tribunal and asked the respondents to file their response within four weeks. The tribunal asked the DM and DFO to file own counter-affidavits before the next date of hearing, June 28.
During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner, Sankar Prasad Pani, contended in the tribunal that the construction of road through forest land has started without considering the availability of alternative non-forest land. The petitioner argued that the alternative forest land will also reduce the distance between the destinations with better connectivity and access to public utilities such as banks, schools, hospitals and district headquarters.
It may be mentioned here that an original application was filed in the tribunal by Hemant Kumar Nayak, a resident of Gudupangi village in Nayagarh, district claiming that the Nayagarh DM in connivance with Rural Works department made an illegal and unlawful attempt to construct a 6 km-long road from Balabhadrapur to Dhipmal of which a stretch of 600 meters is on forest land. The petitioner further claimed that the road is being constructed without obtaining any clearance from the Forest department as required under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
The road is being constructed under the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana/Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
“That any kind of passage through forest land will cause irreparable damage to the forest and wildlife, which have been conserved at the sole effort of Gudupangi villages,” the petitioner contended.
The petitioner stated that the forest area is also the home to a wide range of wild animals such as bear, wild boar, otter, porcupine, rabbit, wild dog, wild cat, monkey, pangolin, jackal, elk, deer, fox, wolf, and various species of birds and reptiles.
PNN