The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Union and State Governments to file reports over the alleged construction of a building and a pond over the forestland by the SR Breweries Pvt ltd at Barapada mouza under Tangi-Choudwar tehsil in Cuttack “illegally”.
The NGT has asked the Union and State Forests and Environment Secretaries, the Cuttack district Collector and the Forest Officer and the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (ACCF) to file status reports within four weeks.
Environment and social activist Subhash Mohapatra has moved the NGT alleging that the SR Breweries is running a distillery at Barapada mouza by using forestland and even constructing a building and digging a pond without a prior approval under the Forest Conservation Act 1980 from the Union Government.
“The very act of construction and changing the nature of land use from forest to industrial activity is against the principles of sustainable development, precautionary principle, the National Forest Policy and Supreme Court order in the TN Godavarman case,” the petitioner has contended. The NGT has also asked the respondents to act immediately on the issue if there is no forest clearance under the Forest Conservation Act 1980.
The tribunal has fixed February 19 for the next hearing.