PANAJI
The Goa government-appointed review committee under the Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) to review private forest areas -- identified by the Thomas and Araujo Committees -- has recommended an additional 10.75 sq kms of area to be notified as private forest.
In two separate reports -- 8th and 9th -- submitted to the government, the committee has identified an additional 5.57 sq kms and 5.17 sq kms of area as private forest and has recommended that it be notified.
As per sources, while the government has accepted 8th report, the recommendations of the 9th report are under consideration. “There is another 15 sq kms of private forest area which is currently under consideration of the Review Committee,” sources said.
The committee has proposed 2,650 survey numbers under private forest area while another 2067 survey numbers -- as identified by the Thomas and Araujo committees -- are recommended to be excluded.
The review committee has taken into consideration additional 154 survey numbers that were excluded by the Thomas and Araujo committees between 2012-18.
In 2024, in two separate orders, the government had notified 45.5 sq kms and 46.1 sq kms of area in the State as private forest in compliance with an order by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The State government criteria to identify private forests are that the area should be contiguous to government forest lands and, if in isolation, the minimum area identified should be 5 hectare.
“The government has accepted the 8th part of the final report submitted by the review committee,” the committee said.
The review committee reviewed the survey numbers after detailed analysis through Google Timeline Change corroborated based on court orders, tree felling, etc.
As per the criteria, the canopy density should not be less than 0.4. The third criterion is that 75% of the tree composition of such lands should be of forestry species.
As of the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023, Goa's total forest cover is 2,265.7 sq kms.
