Govt plans to levy afforestation charge on developers

MUMBAI: After prolonged uncertainty, there is some hope for the 10 to 15 lakh residents of buildings, built illegally on private forest land in and around Mumbai and Thane. The state government has planned various measures, including legalising these structures, by imposing penalty on developers.

At a meeting chaired by Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday, the state government finalised an affidavit, to be submitted before the Supreme Court. The case is now with the apex court.

The affidavit, among other things, proposes afforestation on alternative sites, equal to the chunk of the private forest land encroached by apartments and bungalows. In addition, the state would levy an afforestation charge of Rs 70,000 per hectare on developers.

���The government will propose this solution before the Supreme Court and also present this proposal before the Central Empowered Committee (CEC). Once CEC gives its sanction, the government will implement this formula,��� Congress MLC Charansingh Sapra told ET after the meeting, chaired by Mr Deshmukh.

Prakash Padikkal, president of environmental NGO Hirwa, who was also present in the meeting, said this was the best possible solution in the given context.

On March 24, the Bombay High Court dismissed 19 petitions filed by builders and developers, challenging land acquisition notices issued by the forest department under the Maharashtra Private Forest Land (Acquisition) Act, 1975.

The high court upheld the forest department���s order, reported first by ET last year, that rendered around 1,200 acres in Mumbai and Thane as ���private forest land���, thus making all apartments and structures on this land ���illegal���.

The verdict impacts around 1 lakh existing flats in apartments built on private forest land, and also hundreds of under-construction residential structures. Most of these apartments are located in Mulund, Bhandup, Kanjur, Malad, Borivli and Thane.

The HC verdict had led to a panic among residents of these apartments. All political parties have mounted pressure on the state government to bail out residents, as it became apparent that the revenue and forests departments had not updated land records and failed to prevent construction on private forest land.

Even though the Maharashtra government now intends to take a sympathetic view, doubts still persist over who will actually bear the brunt of the afforestation charge. While the government has decided to make developers pay the penalty, old flat owners point out how difficult it would be get hold of their developers.

���On behalf of flat owners, we still have reservations about the afforestation charge. Since blunders committed by the government departments have led to this mess, owners, who have already invested money in these flats, should not be made to cough up more for no fault of theirs,��� Mr Padikkal added.