VANASHAKTI A PUBLIC TRUST Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The five Writ Petitioners of W.P. No. 1487/2019, the first being a Public Charitable Trust having object to protect and preserve the western Ghats, coastal zones, forests and rivers, the second being its project Director, the other three being environmental activists and residents of Mumbai have filed Writ Petition No. 1487 of 2019 praying as under:

(2.) The Petitioner in Public Interest Litigation (L) No. 86/2019, who is concerned with environment has filed the petition praying as under:

(3.) The pleadings in W.P. No. 1487/2019 commence with reference to a direction issued by the Supreme Court in the order reported as T.N.Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India & Ors, 1997 2 SCC 267. in which after referring to the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, which does not define the meaning of the word 'forest'; holding that the word must be understood according to its dictionary meaning, the Supreme Court held that the description covers statutorily recognized forest, whether designated as reserved, protected or otherwise. The Supreme Court issued a direction to the State Governments to constitute within one month an Expert Committee to identify areas which are forests irrespective of whether they were so notified, recognized or classified under any law and irrespective of the ownership of the land. The pleadings recognize that the continuous mandamus issued is being monitored before the Supreme Court. It is pleaded in paragraph 4 of the petition that the petitioners seek to challenge the destructive activities in the form of construction and commercial activities proposed at the Aarey Milk Colony ("Aarey") which was earmarked as Green Zone as per the sanctioned Development Plan: 2014-2034. It is pleaded in the said paragraph that Aarey is contiguous to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and is having a natural tree cover, most of which is forest species and the area is rich in biodiversity. It is pleaded that Aarey has 12 tribal hamlets and is the natural habitats of insects, birds, reptiles and leopards. In paragraph 5 it is pleaded that Aarey would be deemed to be a 'forest' . With reference to the documents it is pleaded that to remove and resettle cattle from the City of Bombay, in the year 1945 land comprised in village Aarey was acquired with the object of starting a Government dairy farm. Construction work commenced in the year 1948. The first batch of 300 cattle was removed from the city on 8th March 1947. The area comprised entirely of jungle land and there was hardly any agriculture activity. The pleadings refer to a letter dated 22nd July 1980 addressed by the Divisional Manager Borivali National Park to the Regional Manager Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd. informing that at a meeting held on 11th February 1980 the Advisory Committee of the Borivali National Park decided to create a recreational zone in Aarey and exclude the same from the boundary of proposed Sanjay Gandhi National Park. That as per the Management Plan various sectors have been classified for different use such as lion, tiger and panthers safari, a botanical park and recreational area; recognizing existence of a Bacon factory, residential quarters etc. The letter informs that 575.33 hectare land was earmarked as administrative sector, zoological sector and areas under construction. The letter records that in the year 1969, 20 square km area which was revenue land was transferred from the Greater Bombay Milk Scheme at Aarey Colony to the forest division. The letter terminates by recording that the remainder area needs to be notified as a reserved forest. It records that a proposal was under consideration to issue a Notification under Section 4 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 to declare the remaining area in Aarey as a reserved forest. The Schedule referred to as Appendix A to the letter records as under:-