Environmental organisations are up in arms against the move of the Forest department to hand over 18.250 hectares of forestland to a private tea estate in Wayanad.
Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti president N. Badusha on Thursday alleged that a few top officials of the Forest department had conspired to hand over the forestland worth ₹200 crore here under the Meppadi forest range of the South Wayanad forest division to Elstone Tea estate Limited and the Meppadi Forest range officer was preparing a mahassar for the purpose.
According to the verdicts of the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court, all transactions related to land, which were under the possession of the British, were null and void and the ownership of the land was vested with the State government, Mr. Badusha said.
