PANAJI
The State government has notified 45.5 sq km area in the State as private forest in compliance with an order by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). This is the second parcel of land in Goa to be notified as private forest.
In September, last year, the government had notified 46.1 sq kms of area as private forest.
In a notification issued on Wednesday, Under Secretary Forest Nathine Araujo said that in pursuance of NGT order, the Government has notified the part final report on Private Forest encompassing an area of 455.1081 Hectare that is45.5 sq kms, which has been reviewed and finalized in all respects by the Review Committees.
Araujo said that the Review Committee has so far reviewed 1678 survey numbers out of 3349 survey numbers, which were identified by the two Committees -- North Goa Forest Division Committee and South Goa Forest Division Committee.
“Accordingly, the review committee has finalized an area of 455.1081 Hectare as private forest area in 60 qualifying survey numbers,” Araujo said.
The department has said that any new survey numbers formed due to partition of any of these identified survey numbers after November 27, 2011 would be deemed to have been notified as private forest, if the identified area comes within the said notified survey numbers.
The review committee, which has formed several sub-committees, are carrying out ground enumeration of around 8500 ha or 85 sq kms area for further classification as private forest. The ground enumeration is based on the criteria that at least 75 per cent of the tree species in the private forest are of ‘forestry type’.
The first private forest parcel (46.1 sq kms) was notified based on the findings of the Sawant and Karapurkar committees, which were later reviewed and confirmed by the Sharma committee.
