By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Federation of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP) has urged Governor RS Mooshahary not to give his assent to the Meghalaya Forest Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2012.
In a memorandum submitted to the Governor, FKJGP president Joe Marwein said that the definition of the State Government with regards to forest gives immense power to anyone to destroy any tract of forest land less than four hectares.
The State Cabinet had, earlier this month, approved the Amendment to have clarity on the definition of the areas which would be considered as forests.
As per the Amendment, a new clause (10) has been inserted (Section 3 of the Act) which stated an area would be ‘forest’ if it is a compact or continuous tract of minimum four hectares of land irrespective of ownership and where more than 250 naturally growing trees per hectare with size of 15 cm at breast height or more than 100 naturally growing bamboo clumps per hectare are present in case of the tracts containing predominantly sympodial bamboo.
“It appears that the State Government is not satisfied with the Supreme Court’s definition and has gone a step further in redefining forest and this amounts to contempt of court,” the memorandum added.
