Collector advises against notifying Munnar forests

Link to my edited story on Munnar published in The Hindu on January 29, 2010: http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/29/stories/2010012950100100.htm

This is the text of the published article:

P. Venugopal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the Kerala High Court’s directions to the State government on January 21 to initiate action against illegal encroachments in Munnar remained, the District Collector of Idukki on January 25 wrote to the State government not to go ahead with its plan to declare the unreserved forests of the region as reserved forests based on the existing survey records, informed sources in the government have revealed.

The faxed letter said he had “come to know from press news and reliable sources that the government wants to notify 17,985 acres of land as reserved forests,” apparently a reference to reports quoting Forest Minister Benoy Viswom that appeared on January 25 and 26 saying that the government was attending to the legal formalities related to handing over 17,922 acres of unreserved forests in Munnar, now with the Revenue Department, to the Forest Department.

The Collector also stated that the “extent of area arrived at [by the] forest [department] suffers from infirmity and resurvey records prepared [by the Revenue Department] do not have any credibility and lacks integrity.”

Seven ‘glaring facts’

He listed seven “glaring facts which had come to my notice” to point out why the “boundary and area mentioned in re-survey records may not be relied upon.” He added that the “actual area going to be notified may be verified on ground, as a lot of area has been notified in KDH village which is outside the custody of forest department.”

The Idukki Collector, it has been stated, faxed the letter to the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Private Secretary to the Revenue Minister, Secretary to the Forest Department, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and the Chief Conservator of Forests based in Kottayam, who has jurisdiction over Munnar in Idukki district.

*****