There seems to be a development in support of Chharba residents and all those opposing the construction of Coca-Cola bottling plant here, the Forest Department has labelled that the land marked for the plant in this village is a deemed forest.
As a result, the Forest (Conservation) Act will be applicable on this land and its utilisation for non-forestry purposes will require the permission of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
It is pertinent to mention here that apart from Chharba residents, environmentalists, political and social activists have protested against the decision of the State Government to allocate about 60 acres of land in Chharba for building a Coca Cola bottling plant.
Those against this venture cite non-availability of water, environmental and health problems caused elsewhere in India due to such bottling plants and the existence of a thick growth of trees in the area as factors which make the venture unfeasible.
Information received by Citizens For Green Doon from the Forest Department under Right To Information Act revealed that in May a team of forest officials visited the area.
The team assessed the departmental plantation records and interviewed many people before concluding that 70,360 trees were planted by the Forest Department in the area between 1980 and 1989 and now most of the trees in the area are healthy. With various tree species including Khair, shisham, eucalyptus, jacaranda, tarcharbi, jamun and babool among others growing on 51.50 hectare area, this area is considered to be a deemed forest and comes under the purview of Forest (Conservation) Act 1980.
Expressing relief at the report, CFGD chief coordinator Dr Nitin Pandey said, “With this report all attempts of the State government to establish a Coca Cola bottling plant in the area have come to a naught since a forest cannot be given to a private company under the Forest Conservation Act for any reason. This project is detrimental to the environment of the State and as the recent disasters have shown, "development" cannot be at the cost of environment”, he stressed.
Chharba Gram Pradhan Rumi Ram Jaswal said that he was thankful that the Forest Department had finally heard the pleas of the villagers. “We had been requesting the department for so many years to look after the plantation but no one bothered. We plan to plant another 2000 trees in the area soon during the present monsoons,” he said while appealing to the Forest Department to help them in their mission.
It should be noted here that according to the Supreme Court judgement in TN Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union Of India and others in 2010, permission of the MoEF is needed for carrying out any non-forest activity on deemed forest land which comes under the purview of the Forest (Conservation) Act.