The Hindu : Encroachment of forests rampant: PAC

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Saturday, Mar 02, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Encroachment of forests rampant: PAC

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore March 1. The Public Accounts Committee on the Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment in its report submitted to the government has pointed out that the encroachment of forest land was rampant in the State, and it was happening with the connivance of officials.

The Chairman of the committee, A. Ramadas, told presspersons that the extent of encroachment was 59,552 hectares as of February 26, 2000, indicating a 427 per cent rise in encroachments over the past 10 years. The committee has recommended action against jurisdictional officers involved in this scandal.

Mr. Ramadas said that though a government directive was issued in 1987 to conduct a State-wide census of sandalwood trees at divisional and circle levels, no such evaluation had been done by the Forest Department till today. The committee has observed that there was large-scale illegal felling, and smuggling of sandalwood to neighbouring States where the price was much higher.

The audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India had reported shortfall in receipt of sandalwood to the extent of Rs. 46.73 crore in 93 cases in 16 divisions. The department, the Committee has noted, failed to recover the same, which resulted in loss of revenue to the Government. It has sought disciplinary action against officials involved in this. The committee has cited shortfall of 414 kg. of sandalwood in Kollegal division in 1992, though sandalwood had been transported and received on the same day.

It said that annual stock verification of sandalwood was pending for over six years in Kushalnagar and Mysore divisions. Though a shortfall in stocks of hard wood (508 tonnes), soft wood (23.88 tonnes) and mix wood (6.69 tonnes) had been reported, the department had not taken action to recover the same.

He said that the expenditure of the department had exceeded the budgetary allocation and it had not regularised the excess expenditure due to non-reconciliation of expenditure. Since reconciliation was incomplete, the department had no control over grants released through letters of credit. He cited the case of the Assistant Conservator of Forests, Bannerghatta National Park, who drew Rs. 4.38 crore in excess of the letter of credit issued for the period 1992-93 to 1995-96, and the Chief Conservator of Forests had not prevented the same. The committee has taken serious view of the inaction on the part of the CCF and sought action against the official. It has also pointed out that during 1996-97, the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bangalore Urban, encashed Rs. 19 lakh in excess of the Letter of Credit.

The committee has noted with regret that for several years the minor forest produce had not been disposed of either by auction or by sale, resulting in loss of revenue despite repeated observations in the audit. The reason for this omission, it noted, was the delay in according sanction at the government level. It has recommended that the contract for disposal of minor forest product should be entrusted to authorised cooperative societies.

On the Western Ghats forestry and environment project funded by the Overseas Development Agency of Japan, the committee said that the project report prepared for implementation was not in consonance with site-specific conditions in the project area. Citing an instance, the committee has said that in Kanara circle, 33 per cent of the area under afforestation was planted with acacia, which resulted in depletion of mixed species and had an adverse impact on the biodiversity of the region.

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