Telangana Revamps Panel To Define Deemed Forests

Hyderabad:The state government has reconstituted a high-level expert committee to identify "deemed forest" areas in the state, a long-pending and contentious issue now gaining momentum ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the Kancha Gachibowli land case scheduled for July 23.

Sources said the committee’s first task will be to evolve scientific and objective criteria for defining a forest or forest-like area. Once the criteria are finalised, the panel will assess individual land parcels to determine whether they fall under the deemed forest category.

The move assumes significance as the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC), in its report on Kancha Gachibowli, had noted that the 400 acres under dispute appeared to fall within the deemed forest category. The state government, however, has contested this view.

Officials said the revised committee is expected to submit its report to the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change by September.

In the past, as per the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, a forest was to be viewed as defined in a "dictionary" but this led to a lot of issues, and then the decision was to drop the dictionary definition, but this too resulted in its own set of problems. And in an effort to streamline this process and put an end to the confusion, the Supreme Court ordered that all states set up expert committees to define a forest and a deemed forest, and the one now reconstituted in Telangana will take up this task, the sources explained.

Sources said the Supreme Court, which first ordered the formation of such committees in all states, left the definition of the deemed forest to individual states, some of which have evolved their own criteria. The committee in Telangana will study the reports from other states and come up with criteria to define a forest-like land, irrespective of the ownership of the land, whether it is held by the government, privately, or by any other entity.

The government reconstituted the committee, changing the one it first formed this March, following the CEC's previously expressing reservations on the composition of the previous committee as being filled with bureaucrats and government officials with no expertise or experience in matters relating to forestry, and related subjects. The previous committee had as its members the GHMC commissioner, HMDA metropolitan commissioner and panchayat raj commissioner, among others.

The reconstituted panel is chaired by Dr C. Survarna, principal chief conservator of forests (head of forest force). Members include R. Shankaran, former deputy conservator of forests and OSD (wildlife), as expert member (wildlife); a representative each from the National Remote Sensing Centre and Chief Commissioner of Land Administration; S. Madhava Rao, deputy conservator of forests, as expert on remote sensing and IT; the conservator of forests, Rajanna Siricilla district; and the district forest officer, Khammam.

Officials said the committee will also review policies adopted by other states and prepare location-neutral criteria to identify forests, regardless of ownership—be it government, private or institutional.