Hyderabad: A clash between revenue and forest departments over expanding a stretch of road that runs through the Jakaram forest block in Mulugu district is turning curious by the day with forest officials seeking permission to file cases against National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for violating forest protection laws.
Forest officials are wondering where the three large earth excavating machines they took possession of from the work site and requested the local police for assistance to seize the machinery, have disappeared; the foresters had taken away the ignition keys of the machines. The machines did not have registration plates, it is learnt. It is suspected that the machines were driven away.
No formal complaint has been lodged with the police, whose assistance in safeguarding the vehicles was sought through a letter addressed to them, sources said.
The NHAI is the ‘user agency’ that has taken up work after approval from the Mulugu district administration to strengthen the NH 163 through the Jakaram forest to improve access to Medaram, famous for the Samakka Saralamma Jatara.
With work on the road proceeding — under police protection reportedly ordered to be in place round the clock by the Mulugu district administration — despite objections from the forest department which is insisting that the district administration and the user agency await permissions under the Forest Conservation Act, forest officials shot off a letter to their headquarters in Hyderabad seeking permission to file a complaint in the courts against NHAI for violating FCA guidelines.
Even as they await instructions from Aranya Bhavan, the forest department headquarters in Hyderabad, it is learnt that the damage to the forest through felling of trees and excavation of soil by NHAI since work began around May 20, has been estimated at around ₹9 crore. This includes the cost of 1,180 trees that have been felled so far, and 9,050 cubic metres of soil that has been removed for the road work.
If permissions are to be sought and followed, then the user agency would have to pay the state forest department costs towards damages, and for compensatory afforestation in addition to following other guidelines prescribed when such permissions are given.
“By not waiting for FCA permissions, and not following the process that was also followed when Mission Bhagiratha pipelines were laid through the forest area, the district administration is deliberately violating FCA,” sources said.
The dispute between the forest department and the Mulugu district administration began with both sides claiming that the land belonged to them.
According to NHAI Warangal division executive engineer M. Vidyasagar, work started by contractors after the district administration handed over the land along the 3.5 km stretch of road through the Jakaram forest. He said the district administration made it clear that it was not forest but revenue land, and also imposed Section 145 of CrPC to prevent any hindrance to work.
