The government will not spare even an inch of the forestland at Ponthanpuzha reserve forests that spread across Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts, Forest Minister K. Raju has said.
The Minister was talking to reporters after visiting the Ponthanpuzha forests and surrounding areas on Sunday afternoon.
The State had not lost any piece of forestland at Ponthanpuzha.
However, the government had filed a review petition before the Kerala High Court to protect the genuine interests of settler farmers there who have been waiting for Pattayam for the land occupied by them for the past 100 years, he said.
The Minister said the government had decided to issue pattayam (title deeds) to 414 families who had settled at Alapra, Perumpetty, Valakody Chathuppu, Panackapathal, and Ponthanpuzha areas along the forest fringes before 1977.
Mr. Raju said the High Court had clearly maintained that Ponthanpuzha was a forestland.
But, the State had filed a review petition against the court order, seeking clarification for asserting total control over Ponthanpuzha forests and to assign 267.50 acres of land to the settler farmers who had been occupying the land prior to 1977, the Minister said.
The Minister said the Forest Department had constructed junda in the Ponthanpuzha forests that spread across 5,960 acres to demarcate the forest boundaries.
Ironically, those who were clamouring for conservation of forest themselves sought pattayam for `farmers’ in the forestland, said Mr. Raju.
