Calcutta HC forms committee to stop illegal conversion of forest land in Sunderbans

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday formed a two-member committee headed by a senior IPS officer to immediately stop all illegal conversion of forest land into fisheries, resorts, adventure sports outlets in the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove area.

The court directed the district magistrate of South 24 Parganas to ensure that all activities to destroy or touch any part of the mangrove forest are arrested with immediate effect.

A division bench comprising justices Sanjib Banerjee and Arijit Banerjee directed that the district magistrate will undertake visits and assign responsible officers to make surprise checks to keep the land sharks at bay.

The court formed a two-member committee headed by IPS officer Damayanti Sen, currently with Kolkata Police, with the other member being the journalist of a vernacular daily who reported on the illegal conversion of forest land into fisheries.

It directed that the committee will visit all over the Sundarbans to immediately stop all illegal activities of conversion of forest land into fisheries, resorts, adventure sports outlets or any other and file a preliminary report before the matter next appears for hearing on December 21.

The bench directed that copies of the order should immediately be reached to the state's chief secretary for "appropriate action without caring for any political resistance that may be faced".

The court ordered that the officer-in-charge of the Basanti police station will ensure the well-being of the petitioner who claims to have received repeated threats.

"If so much as an insect bites the petitioner, an adverse inference will be drawn against the local police," the bench directed.

Passing the order, the court observed that desecration of the mangrove forest on the southern fringes of West Bengal may have a devastating effect on the southern districts in the state and imperil large tracts of neighbouring Bangladesh.

The writ petitioner complained of illegal activities undertaken to convert forest land into fisheries by uprooting the mangrove trees.

"There is little possibility of such activity being undertaken without the tacit support of the administration and the political clout aiding and abetting such illegal activities," the court observed.

The court took judicial notice of the newspaper report on salt-water fisheries mushrooming all over the Sundarbans for prawn-culture in the wake of the Indian palate's great demand for the crustacean.

"It also appears that illegal diving centres, pleasure resorts and adventure outlets have also sprung up on the many islands that form the Sundarbans in its Indian part," the court noted, observing that none of such activities could have been undertaken if the administration was vigilant and there was any political will to preserve the mangroves.