Orissa HC stays alienation of forest-classified land for JSW steel project

As many as 24 villagers had moved the High Court, stating that the Tahsildar of Erasama had initiated land alienation under the Orissa Government Land Settlement Act, 1962 without settling their rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

The Orissa High Court has stayed the alienation of forest-classified land in favour of the ₹65,000 crore mega steel project proposed by the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group in Odisha till provisions under the Forest Right Act, 2006 are complied with.

This is a second setback for JSW Group in a fortnight. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently suspended environmental clearances granted to the project.

As many as 24 villagers had moved the Orissa High Court, stating that the Tahsildar of Erasama had initiated land alienation under the Orissa Government Land Settlement Act, 1962 without settling their rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

Khirod Kumar Rout, the senior High Court lawyer representing villagers, had contended that Sub-section(5) in Section 4 of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 says no Scheduled Tribe (ST) or other traditional forest dweller shall be evicted or removed from forest land under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is complete.

The petitioners submitted that between 2009 and 2013, the Odisha Government had forcibly taken over the possession of 2,700 acres of forest land for a mega steel plant proposed by South Korean steel major POSCO by deploying police force near the port town of Paradip. Due to widespread opposition by the people, POSCO had shelved the project in 2017.

Instead of returning the land to the people, the State government, through the Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) had constructed boundary walls around ‘illegally’ acquired forest land, they pointed out. When the JSW Group proposed the establishment of a steel plant on the same place, the same patch of land was decided to be handed over to the company.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had approved the transfer of the final forest clearance for 1,083.69 Ha (2,677.85 acres) of forest area out of 1,253.225 Ha (3,096.78 acres) in favour of the JSW Group, Mr. Rout said.