HC upholds order on reserve forest

Chennai: The Madras High Court has upheld a 2010 order of the TN government, decl­aring 3,381.16.5 hectares of land in Sirumalai, Di­ndigul district, as reserve forest.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, dismissed a batch of over 200 appeals from the Siru­malai Pazhathotta Viva­syigal Sangam and others, challenging the order of a single judge, which rej­ected their plea to qu­ash the order of the state government dated Febr­uary 4, 2010.

Concurring with the submissions of special government pleader (forest) M.K. Subramanian, the bench said the G.O. and the gazette notification clearly revealed the due and proper application of mind on the part of the authorities before declaring the land in question as reserve forest.

The petitioners had failed to submit their objections and representations after issue of the proclamation. It was also pertinent to point out that in a public interest litigation filed in 2005, final orders were passed and a direction given to complete the process with regard to declaration of the reserve forest; encr­oachers had to be identified and removed and a time-frame was also stipulated. The government had initiated action to comply with this order, the bench added.

Referring to the submission of Selvi George and M. Gopinathan for the petitioner that the petitioners were ‘Other traditional forest dwellers’ and therefore their rights were protected under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional For­est Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, the bench said this submission lacks merit and substance for the reason that as per the Act, ‘Other tra­diti­onal forest dweller’ means any member or community who has, for at least three generations prior to December 13, 2005, primarily resided in and who depend on the forest or forest lands for livelihood needs.

The appellants had clai­med to have been in possession of the land in qu­estion for only one generation and, therefore, they cannot claim any right under the Act, the bench pointed out. It said, the appellants have failed to substantiate their legal land rights which has been declared a reserve forest.