A villager stands by a felled tree in Posco project area in Jagatsinghpur on Thursday. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, Aug. 25: Orissa High Court is due to decide for over a month now on legality of the forest clearance granted by the ministry of environment and forest for the proposed 12-million-tonne Posco steel plant near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district.

The project is proposed to be established over an area of 1,620.49 hectares, including 1,253.22 hectares of forestland.

Six villagers of Govindpur-Dhinkia-Nuagaon had filed a writ petition for quashing of forest clearance alleging violation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2008.

The two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra closed hearing in the case on July 20. A decision has since been due.

At least 3,575 families would be allegedly affected in terms of livelihood and face displacement by diversion of 1,253.22 acres of forestland.

The dispute had centred round the question whether the Forests Rights Act, 2006, was applicable to any of the communities in the project area. Counsel for the petitioners had forwarded arguments pointing out that two independent investigation committees (one headed by former planning commission member N.C. Saxena and another by former ministry of environment and forest secretary Meena Gupta) had concluded violation of the Forest Rights Act in the project area.

The Forest Advisory Committee (under the Forest Conservation Act), a statutory review body of the ministry of environment and forest, had also concluded the same and recommended withdrawal of the order for forestland diversion.

The Orissa government had countered by claiming that central approval for forestland diversion was subject to fulfilment of all required terms and conditions. The local communities did not have any right conferred under the Forest Rights Act, the state counsel said.

The counsel for the Union government had contended that the approval was based on assurance by the Orissa government that the rights endowed under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, did not apply to the communities affected by the project.

Deadlock continues

Deadlock continued in proposed Posco project area as efforts to broker out a settlement with people opposing the work failed to yield any positive result today.

On the other hand, the administration, with the support of local people in a particular village, managed to clear minuscule proportion of forest areas with the pulling down of forest classified trees.

Almost as a routine ritual, the officials, accompanied by police, went through the project area and made attempt to resume the project-related work. In the face of protest, the exercise, however, was stalled.

“We had moved to carry out the work, but project work could not be resumed as the villagers were opposed to it. Paying respect to the local people’s sentiments, we suspended the exercise for the day,” said special land acquisition officer Nrusingha Charan Swain.