The Hindu, November 19, 2014
The State government will soon seek legal opinion on
whether it should give compensation for the land acquired under the
Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Land) Act
and since classified as reserve forests in the context of the recent
High Court verdict upholding the constitutional validity of the 2003
law.
The verdict of the Division Bench is silent on
this aspect though it contains several impactful points from the angle
of environment protection, protection of ecologically fragile land,
water resources, etc. Minister for Environment Thiruvanchoor
Radhakrishnan told
The Hindu
on Tuesday that the verdict was a major milestone in the government’s
efforts to protect the EFL Act since the court had upheld the
constitutionality of the law. The verdict came after more than 14 years
of litigation. The Division Bench had also struck down the contention of
the petitioners spread over 56 cases that the refusal to pay
compensation for the takeover of the EFL under Section 3 of the Act
amounted to violation of Article 300 (a) of the Constitution. The
verdict states that land contiguous to reserve forests or forests that
have vegetation will be reckoned as ecologically fragile since the
ecosystem including the forests should be considered as one unit.
Mr.
Radhakrishnan said the government would protect the 40,000 acres of
ecologically fragile land that had been taken over and adopt all legal
measures to keep these tracts of land.
In reply to a
question, he said the court had provided relief to the petitioners to
move the Green Tribunal under Section 3 (1) or the Custodian of Forests
under Section 19(B).
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