Panaji
Addressing a press conference here, the Convenor of the Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan Nirmala Sawant informed that their case in the Supreme Court against Karnataka for carrying out work in the forest area of the Western Ghats without forest and environmental clearances was disposed after accepting the statement of Karnataka.
"Now that Karnataka has categorically said that they are not carrying out construction and that no construction will be carried out in the future, nothing further survives in the case," Sawant said.
"It can mean that the Mhadei tribunal will become
infructuous. There is no meaning left. They cannot build further. No permission under the Forest Act has been accorded by the answering respondent for the Kalsa bhandura project," Sawant said.
She however informed that carrying of any non-forestry activity on forest land without obtaining prior approval of the central government amounts to violation of the Forest Act.
"It is in an ecologically sensitive area of the western ghats which also involves submergence of forest area. They cannot build further," she said.
She also informed that the Karnataka counsel had sought a modification of the order of the Supreme Court to include the words "without clearance" to allow Karnataka to carry out the work once they get the clearances from the statutory authorities.
"At first they mentioned it before the Supreme Court when our lawyer was not present and they were asked to submit an application for the same which has not yet been done," Sawant said.
"If they do seek to proceed with the construction we
will have no option to approach the central government as well as international authorities as the Western Ghats have been notified as an ecologically sensitive area besides being recognized by UNESCO as one of the world's natural heritage sites," Sawant said.
