Borkar welcomes Arlekar's stand on private forests
THE GOAN NETWORK
CORTALIM
Welcoming Forest and Environment Minister Rajendra Arlekar's stand on private forests, Sancoale Sarpanch Ramakant Borkar said Arlekar's move would bring relief to the people already alarmed by the private forest threat.
“Arlerkar's reported move to relax the criteria for private forest and also to approach the Supreme Court to seek changes will bring much needed relief to Goans, as their land is already facing restrictions from other agencies,” Borkar told The Goan.
While clarifying that Goa's hills mostly consists of fruit-bearing trees (man-made plantations) devoid of forest trees to qualify as private forest, Borkar accused the South Goa committee of "creating private forest" in the name of identifying private forest.
“In my village of Sancoale, which has an airport in the vicinity, and which consists of industrial estate and national highways, the committee has surveyed the hills which lie on a narrow strip between two highways and (they) are in the process of identifying them as private forest,” Borkar said.
“This step will deprive the locals of utilising their ancestral land, which mostly consists of small landholdings,” feared Borkar.
“Properties in Goa have already been adversely affected by the railways, highways, Coastal Regulation Zones, rivers which calls for leaving statutory setbacks, leaving the land owners with limited space for construction.”
“If private forests are identified, the land owners will be forced to go in for illegal constructions, virtually turning Goa into a slum,” Borkar warned.
Borkar, who had confronted members of the South Goa committee while they were surveying the land in Sancoale, said, “I feel that the green belt with a steep gradient should be maintained, but the identification of private forest should be opposed at all costs.”
