The CAG report on the forest department reiterates home truths. No forest policy, no control over diversion of land for mining and shoddy afforestation.
With 30 percent forest cover and 0 percent forest management, theforest policy of Goa, while existing in spirit, is lost in the woods. There are six Wildlife Sanctuaries, one National Park and one Zoo, covering anarea of 754.91 sq km. But Goa isn’t covered from their destruction. Forstarters, despite there being clear cut guidelines from the Centre (as perNational Forest Commission in 2006), the State has no Forest Policy. TheState’s reluctance to have a Forest Policy that would set concrete guidelines tomaintain the delicate balance between ore extraction and tree cutting makesmatters worse.
The audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (2010-11),highlights the extent of forest mismanagement. Almost eighty percent of forestplantations have not been inspected.
The most critical aspect of mismanagement though relates to diversionof forest land for mining. The report states “While granting permission fordiversion of forest land for mining, GOI conditions include fencing, mitigatedmeasures to minimize soil erosion, etc. A test check of 24 out of 26 casesapproved by North and South Divisions revealed that periodic inspections ofmines were not done to ensure compliance to GOI conditions”.
The report reveals that the Forest Department did not verify the claimof non-working mines based on the inspections carried out by the staff andofficers of the department.
Moreover, no control registers were maintained, indicating the positionof compliance by mine owners and follow up action by the divisions in case ofdefault. The Report also makes a mention of how despite a Supreme CourtJudgment to back its claim regarding Compensatory Afforestation, the ForestDepartment could not realise penal CA charges amounting to Rs 3.70 crorefrom M/s V.S. Dempo and Company Private Limited with respect to three mines.According to norms laid down, Compensatory Afforestation should be done over anequivalent area of non-forest land or double the degraded forest land in casenon forest land is not available, in order to compensate for the adverseeffects of diversion of green forest land.
In North Goa only 35% of the 1449.97 square metres used was afforestedsince 1983, whereas in the South there was an improvement at 82%. On anaverage, Goa’s Forest cover was compensated by just 58%, when the compensationshould have been at least 100%.
The debris of mismanagement grows larger. The Department on an averagesent its proposals for grants 119 days after the deadline. From 2006-11, itdemanded Rs. 82.74 crore per annum from Union Ministry of Forests andEnvironment, and received only Rs. 39.50 crores. In the same period as againstMoEF’s sanction of Rs. 196.51 crores, over Rs. 79.81 crores was left unspent.Most importantly, none of the works had completion certificates, while a utilizationcertificate was submitted in only 49% of the cases.
