Cuttack: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the divisional forest officer (DFO), Rourkela to ensure that no “illegal felling” of trees takes place on 6.36 acres of forest land in Sundargarh district, which petitioners alleged was illegally transferred to private companies for industrial use.The direction was issued on Sept 3 by NGT’s east zone bench, comprising judicial member Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert members A Senthil Vel and Ishwar Singh, while dealing with an interim application filed by three local residents.The applicants — Pradeep Kumar Das, Ramakanta Biswal and Patel Lakra — sought an immediate stay on further marking and felling of trees and construction activities on the disputed land. They also urged the tribunal to direct the DFO, his agents and contractors to maintain a strict status quo over the forest area.The bench, however, declined to take up the interim plea separately as the main original application is already scheduled for final hearing on Oct 14.“Since the case is already fixed for final hearing, the fresh application will be disposed of with the main petition as separate hearing of the same will delay the disposal of the original application,” the bench observed.While deferring consideration of the interim plea, the tribunal made it clear that forest protection could not be compromised. It directed the DFO (Rourkela) to ensure that “no illegal felling of trees takes place in the land in question” till the matter is taken up for final hearing.The petitioners have alleged that Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) provisionally allotted ‘gramya jungle’ (village forest) land at Kalokudar to two private companies for setting up steel, iron and ferro-alloys units. According to them, the allotment and construction were undertaken without mandatory prior approval of the central govt under Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, besides allegedly violating the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 2023.The dispute dates back to last Feb when one of the petitioners approached the DFO seeking cancellation of the allotment. Subsequently, the DFO-cum-wildlife warden directed the companies on March 6 last year to stop construction. The petitioners alleged that construction nevertheless continued.The NGT had issued notices to state authorities and the two companies on July 3 last year. While the state authorities filed a joint counter affidavit, the petitioners later moved the fresh interim application this year on May 27.
