It’s imperative to not allow an inch of forest land to be encroached: Madras HC
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It is totally imperative that not even an inch of forest land within the State be allowed to be encroached upon by anybody, the Madras High Court noticed on Wednesday. It additionally impressed upon the necessity to preserve the forest lands effectively with out spoiling their pristine glory.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy stated so whereas passing interim orders on a public curiosity litigation petition alleging encroachment of reserve forest land at Naduvattam village in Nilgiris district to construct a non-public resort.
The judges directed the Nilgiris Collector and the forest division officers to instantly go to the spot and discover out whether or not the forest land had been encroached upon as alleged by the litigant S. Prabakaran, a neighborhood resident.
The officers have been additionally directed to survey the lands to confirm the cost of encroachment.
If it was discovered that the forest lands had been encroached, they need to be retrieved and restored to their pristine standing, the judges stated. They additionally took severe word of the submission made by petitioner’s counsel C. Vigneswaran {that a} Chennai primarily based girl physician, establishing the resort, had laid pipelines to draw water from forest lands.
“If such is the case, the same must be stopped immediately and the negligent or recalcitrant forest officials identified and steps taken against them for not being able to protect the relevant forest,” the court docket ordered and directed the forest division officers to file an motion taken report after three weeks.
They additionally referred the case to Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram to deal with the matter with the diploma of seriousness it deserves.
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