More often in modern times, growth and development triumph over environment and forests. In Tuticorin, it has taken nearly a century — only the mangroves have escaped.
Ninety years after it was declared a Reserve Forest (RF), 457.25 hectares of forest land in Mullakadu RF in Tuticorin forest division have been de-reserved. The area is situated at a distance of six km from the Gulf of Mannar.
The de-reservation has been granted based on a report of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on the proposal of the Chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust, which has been in possession of the forest land and managing it since 1918. It was notified in the Gazette on Wednesday.
Exactly 21.73 ha of area under mangroves have been excluded by the CEC, forest officials say. The mangrove cover will be transferred to the Forest Department for management and its legal status will continue to be ‘Reserve Forest.’
The main species in the mangroves are Avicennia officinalis and Avicennia marina, mostly found in Korampallam water course, officials say emphasising that this particular water course was like an oasis surrounded by highly developed land and therefore was being protected.
During a joint inspection last year, the MoEF officials, State Forest officials and VOC Port Trust officials found that most of the area proposed for de-reservation had already been deforested and put to non-forestry uses.
While there are some patches of greenery within the de-reserved area, it mainly of Prosopis . As the area was already under the port management for nearly a century, the forest was irretrievable because hundreds of buildings and structures, including a light house and NLC Tamil Nadu Power Limited’s 2x500 MW thermal power plants have come up, forest officials point out.
The SEPC power plant that has been in the pipeline for a decade now would also come up here, officials say.
Meanwhile, the Port Trust would have to maintain the 376.43 ha of green cover as ordered by the CEC, they add.
Based on the CEC recommendation, the Supreme Court had granted permission for de-reservation in 2014 itself, sources say, adding that the port management had deposited the net present value amount at the minimum prescribed rate of Rs 4.38 lakh/ha within four weeks.
Since the non-forestry use of the forest land as well as its transfer to the Port Trust was permitted by the competent authority much earlier than 1980 when the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 came into force, the CEC might have favoured de-reservation, sources in the forest department say.
