NT Reporter
Panaji
The National Green Tribunal (NGT), Western Zone Bench, Pune, has closed proceedings initiated on the basis of a newspaper report alleging that the proposed conversion of around 20,000 sqm of land at Pilerne hill posed a landslide risk and threatened a nearby lake, after finding that the material placed before it did not substantiate the allegations.
The Tribunal had taken suo motu cognisance
following the newspaper
report.
During the hearing, the Bench comprising Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh, Judicial Member, and Dr Sujit Kumar Bajpayee, Expert Member, examined affidavits filed by the Goa Environment Department and the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department.
The Environment Department informed the Tribunal that Survey Nos 37/0 and 37/1 at Pilerne do not fall within any notified Eco-Sensitive Area or Eco-Sensitive Zone and are not located near any protected area, including a national park, wildlife sanctuary, conservation reserve or community reserve.
The TCP Department said the newspaper report had incorrectly treated
Survey Nos 37/0 and 37/1 as separate properties, whereas they form a single property. It also said no application had been received seeking a no-objection certificate for development in Survey No 37/0.
The department further said the report had incorrectly assumed that the proposed conversion involved land with a prohibitive slope. It said land with a gradient exceeding 25 per cent is categorised as No Development Slope, while the 20,000 sqm recommended for conversion has a gradient below 25 per cent. Development is therefore permissible, subject to statutory rules and regulations, it said.
Recording these submissions, the Tribunal observed that the site was not located in an eco-sensitive area.
