It is now clear that the scandal around the Dhamra port is even worse than we had thought. On Friday October 9, even as the construction machinery rumbled on at Dhamra, the Forest Bench of the Supreme Court of India issued notices to the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the state government of Orissa asking them to respond in an interlocutory application alleging violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
The application has been filed by conservationists Bittu Sahgal (Editor, Sanctuary Asia), Romulus Whitaker (Madras Crocodile Bank) and Shekar Dattatri (award winning wildlife film maker and member of the National Board for Wildlife) and names the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Orissa state government as respondents.
The core of the case is that the entire port area is on designated forest land, and at no time was permission ever sought from the
Central Government to divert this land for other uses, as required by the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Not only is this a huge legal
violation, it is also becoming clear that various officials in the Dhamra Port Company Limited, the Ministry of Environment and the
Orissa Forest Department have been aware of this for some time!
Despite this, no action has been taken by the state government to prosecute the violation. Shocking, but perhaps not surprising! And neither has DPCL or its owners (TATA Steel and L&T) taken responsibility for this violation.
The cat is out of the bag now, and we will know in a few weeks time what the governments involved – and DPCL and its masters – have to say in their defence. Watch this space for more as the story unfolds!
This post is tagged conservation, Dhamra, forest
