SC asks Uttarakhand govt to file report disclosing illegal constructions on forest land
New Delhi (PTI): Observing that the authorities have indulged in "persistent negligence", the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Uttarakhand government to file a comprehensive report, including the site plan, disclosing approximate details of illegal constructions which have come up on the forest land in the state.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on December 22 expressed serious concern over the alleged large-scale and systematic grabbing of forest land in Uttarakhand and proposed to expand the scope of proceedings suo motu to examine, what it termed, a shocking failure of the state machinery to protect the forest land.
The bench said the state authorities, apparently in collusion with land-grabbers, first allowed the encroachment of government land and then, in the garb of court orders, wanted to come clean.
The CJI said that the state authorities have been persistently and consistently negligent in the case and "it appears to be a case of collusion and connivance with the land grabbers".
"We would like to know the extent of land encroached... It needs to be determined if there has been any tacit support from the authorities," the bench said, adding, "Let a comprehensive affidavit be filed in two weeks and it should include the site plan giving details of approximate details of illegal constructions and the nature of such constructions."
Earlier, the bench had flagged the large-scale encroachment of forest land and proposed to expand the scope of proceedings on its own to examine the shocking failure of the state machinery to protect forest land.
The bench was hearing a plea filed by one Anita Kandwal against the Uttarakhand government and its authorities.
The bench noted that around 2,866 acres of land notified as government forest land appear to have been unlawfully appropriated by private individuals over the years.
According to the details, a portion of this forest land was allegedly leased out to Pashulok Sewa Samiti, a society based in Rishikesh.
The society, in turn, is stated to have allotted parcels of land to its members.
However, disputes subsequently arose between the society and its members, culminating in what the court described as a "rather collusive decree" passed as a compromise between the parties.
The bench noted that the society later went into liquidation and, through a deed of surrender dated October 23, 1984, surrendered 594 acres of land back to the Forest Department.
The bench observed that the surrender and consequent re-vesting of the land in the government had attained finality.
Despite this, the court recorded that some private individuals allegedly took possession of portions of the land in 2001.
Similarly, a private respondent is stated to be claiming ownership and title on the basis of the collusive decree between the society and its alleged members.
"What seems shocking to us," the bench observed, "is that the State of Uttarakhand and its authorities are sitting as silent spectators when the forest land is being systematically grabbed in front of their eyes."
In view of the seriousness of the allegations, the bench had said it proposed to enlarge the scope of the proceedings suo motu and issued notice to the respondents.
The bench had directed the Uttarakhand chief secretary and the principal chief conservator of forests to constitute an enquiry committee to examine all relevant facts and submit a detailed report to the court.
It had asked all private individuals not to alienate the land encumbering it or create any third-party rights.
The court also made it clear that no construction activity would be permitted on the land. Further, the court directed that all vacant land, except existing residential houses, be taken into possession by the Forest Department and the concerned district collector.
A compliance report on these directions was to be submitted by January 5, the bench had said.
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Modi govt rattled by Rahul’s Great Nicobar visit; project concerns need Parliament debate: Cong
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Sunday flagged in detail concerns related to ecology, tribal rights, transparency and security, over the Great Nicobar project, and asserted that these considerations must be debated in a parliamentary forum.
The opposition party claimed that the Modi government is "rattled" and in damage control mode after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's visit to Great Nicobar last week.
In a statement, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "The Modi Government, clearly in damage control mode after the hugely impactful visit of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to Great Nicobar on April 28 2026, issued a press note on the Great Nicobar Island Development Project three days later."
This press note does not address any of the serious concerns that have been raised on it by local affected communities, environmentalists, anthropologists, academics, civil society experts and other professionals, Ramesh said.
"These concerns had already been conveyed in detail by me to the Union Minister of Environment, Forests & Climate Change on September 10, 2024 and in a follow-up on September 27, 2024," the former environment minister said.
During his visit to Great Nicobar, Gandhi last week alleged that the Great Nicobar project at Campbell Bay in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was "one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against the natural and tribal heritage of the country".
The government on May 1 released a detailed statement with answers to FAQs (frequently asked questions).
"The Great Nicobar Project is a strategic initiative to strengthen India's presence in the Andaman Sea. It seeks to balance port-led growth with calibrated environmental safeguards. Protection of indigenous communities remains central to its planning," the government statement had said.
"The project combines strategic, economic, and ecological priorities. This ensures that development is sustainable, inclusive, and aligned with national interests," it had said.
In his four-page detailed statement, Ramesh spelt out the key concerns over the Great Nicobar project.
Flagging ecological concerns, Ramesh said the Great Nicobar is unique and distinctly different from all other islands in the Andaman and Nicobar group.
"The Government's claim that only 1.82% of the total land of the island group is being used for the project is irrelevant and misleading. It ignores the ecological and biological richness of the Great Nicobar ecosystem, which is unique both in the island group and in the world," he said.
"Galathea Bay, the site of the port, is unequivocally a Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) is a site where port construction is not allowed. As per records of the Zoological Survey of India, Galathea Bay is home to more than 20,000 coral colonies, a key marker of a CRZ-1a categorisation. Similarly, the beach here is the most important nesting site of the Giant Leatherback turtle in the Northern Indian Ocean," Ramesh said.
The recently concluded turtle nesting season saw record turtle nesting at Galathea Bay, he pointed out.
Ramesh alleged that institutions like the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) were literally coerced to play a key role in the environmental clearance and related process for the project.
"These very institutions have now been awarded projects for biodiversity research and monitoring in Great Nicobar. There is a clear conflict of interest here," he argued.
In addition, a couple of reputed and independent-minded institutions that have been very critical of the project have been blacklisted by the Modi government, he said.
Similar is the case with the high-powered committee (HPC) constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in the matter of the challenge to the project's environmental clearance granted, he said.
All the HPC's members either represented the project proponents or agencies which granted the clearances, Ramesh said.
He said the proposal for compensatory afforestation in Haryana is a travesty of ecological principles.
Flagging tribal rights concerns, Ramesh said the Nicobarese Tribal community has expressed concerns multiple times about the project and its impact on their forests, rights, and way of life.
"In November 2022, they withdrew the NoC they had granted for forest diversion saying that they were rushed to sign by concealing the extent of tribal areas to be affected by the project. Representatives of the Nicobarese community also stated in a recent press conference that they were being forced to voluntarily surrender their land for the project," he pointed out.
The claims stand even more exposed in the matter of the Shompen, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), that lives a life of hunting and gathering in the deep forests of Great Nicobar, Ramesh said.
The Shompen are a primarily uncontacted community and there are no non-Shompen speakers of their language, he pointed out.
"It is not clear then how the project authorities have taken their informed consent, which is both ethically appropriate and legally mandated," Ramesh said.
Pointing out that government release has claimed that the airport in Great Nicobar will eventually handle 10 million passengers annually, Ramesh said this appears prima facie to be a huge over-estimation given that the current airport at Port Blair handles 1.8 million passengers annually.
"The deliberations of the Forest Advisory Committee for granting the project's forest clearance were not made public. The report submitted by the High-Powered Committee that examined the clearance granted to the project was kept confidential. The field report prepared by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) that pronounced the status of the site of the port from CRZ-1A to CRZ-1B overnight, remains confidential," he pointed out.
Ramesh also flagged security concerns about the project, saying no less a person than the courageous former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash (Retd) himself has argued in an article that "the security capabilities of ANC (Andaman & Nicobar Command) need to be addressed separately and must have no linkage with the developments contemplated for GNI (Great Nicobar Island)."
"There is thus no need to link India's legitimate security imperatives with the so-called 'development project' - complete with a township, high-end tourist infrastructure, and large transshipment terminal - that the Modi Government is intent on bulldozing through and on which it is now trying to muzzle genuine and much-needed debate hiding behind "security considerations", he said.
"These considerations must, at the very least, be discussed and debated in a Parliamentary forum," Ramesh said.
