Supreme Court classifies 'zudpi' jungles in 6 Vidarbha districts as forest land

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that 'zudpi' jungles or shrub forests in six districts in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region will be treated as forest land but said thousands of hectares of such land allotted for residential houses, agriculture, govt offices and public utilities prior to Dec 1996 would face no adverse consequence. However, the allotment of 'zudpi' jungle land for commercial purposes after Oct 25, 1980, would be treated as encroachment and removed, said a bench of CJI B R Gavai and A G Masih.

Writing the judgment, CJI Gavai said exempting residential houses, govt buildings and public utilities, which got land prior to Dec 1996, from removal is a one-time exception carved out in adherence with the concept of sustainable development and economic democracy as espoused by Dr B R Ambedkar in his speech in the Constituent Assembly.

SC was concerned with 'zudpi' forest land in Nagpur, Wardha, Bandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts. CJI Gavai said the Maharashtra govt shall seek approval under Section 2 of the Forest Conservation Act for the deletion of such land from the 'List of Forest Areas'.

However, to compensate for the loss of these shrub forest lands, the bench said that 'zudpi' land will not be permitted to be used for compensatory afforestation unless there is a certificate of the chief secretary regarding non-availability of non-forest land for the purposes of afforestation. In such cases, compensatory afforestation must be carried out on double the area of 'zudpi' jungle land. It ordered the transfer of 'zudpi' land from the state revenue department to the state forest department.

SC directed constitution of a special task force in each of the six districts, comprising SDM, Dy-SP, assistant conservator of forest and taluka inspector of land revenue, to remove encroachments on 'zudpi' jungles within two years.