Private forest status determined by 75% forestry species, contiguity or 5 ha minimum area, 0.4 canopy density via scientific satellite/ground methods; small delisted plots not forest, permissions upheld, prior Tribunal upholding binding.

JUDGMENT

1. This Original Application has been filed with following prayers:

“(i) An order be issued quashing the Conversion Sanad dated 21.09.2021;

(ii) An order be passed quashing the TCP Technical Clearance dated08.11.2021;

(iii) An order be passed quashing the Construction License dated19.01.2022;

(iv) A direction be issued to the respondents to implement the Forest Department‟s order dated 07.05.2020 and to restore the trees standing on the plots in question.”

2. The facts of this case, in brief, are as follows:

3. Survey No.128 of Assagao village, Bardez Taluka is a part of a large contiguous patch of private forest. As per the Thomas Committee report, entire Survey No.128 of the said village with the sole exception of sub-division No.128/14 was provisionally identified as private forest after ground visit. The said report was presented to the Goa Government in October, 2018. Somewhere in 2019, respondent No.6- John Alfredo Nazareth and respondent No.7- Antonio Agnelo Nazare began felling the trees and clearing the underbush on Survey No.128/9 and 128/10 without permission from any authority. A local NGO – Goa Green Brigade made a complaint to Forest Department regarding destruction of forest land in and around Survey No.128/9 and 128/10, based on which the property was inspected by the Forest Department on 31.10.2019. A panchanama was prepared which records that “in the property bearing Sy.No.128/9 and 10 situated at Bairo Alto we have seen some area approximately 1500 sq mts have been cleared with the help of machinery and we have not found any stump at the site.” The aid panchanama further records the admission of respondent no.6 – owner of the impugned plot, stating that he had cleared the said land by cutting and uprooting the trees with the help of some migrant labourers. A copy of the panchanama is annexed as Annexure-5.

4. It is further mentioned that the Forest Department further followed up this matter with a letter dated 07.05.2020 by the Deputy Conservator of Forest to the Range Forest Officer, directing him to get the said area (Survey No.128/9 and 10) replanted with 30 nos. of forestry species and “to ensure that the trees are planted all over the felled survey nos., not only on the border, so that the area is rejuvenated as a natural forest in the future”. A copy of the said letter is annexed as Annexure-6. It is further submitted that the above letter i.e. Annexure-6 clearly establishes that the property on which the trees have been felled continued to remain a forest in the eyes of the Forest Department, who directed for its restoration as the same were illegally felled.

5. Further it is mentioned that a Review Committee, which had been appointed by the Government of Goa in January, 2020 to review the Thomas and Araujo Committee reports, deleted the entire Survey No.128 from the list of private forests in Assagao village without a ground verification, which was done, not on the basis of actual field verification but merely on the reliance of the FSI maps and satellite imagery. The said exclusion was recorded in the 2nd interim report of the Review Committee dated 10.06.2021, the relevant extract of which is annexed as Annexure-7.

6. Further it is mentioned that the second interim report records that Survey No.128 of the said village “does not qualify the criteria of private forests.” For the plots which did not meet the criteria, the Review Committee did not carry out