While the State government has suspended further proceedings on Section 4 notification for the Chinnakkanal reserve forest in Idukki in the face of public protest, forest officials say the notification can be withdrawn only with the approval of the Centre and the Supreme Court.
The government had last week declared 364.39 hectares of revenue land as reserve forest at Chinnakkanal near Munnar. Following protests, the government suspended further proceedings of the reserve declaration on Monday.
Former Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar had submitted in a reply in the Lok Sabha stating that “the power to notify any area as forest land as well as to denotify forest lands is vested with State governments under the Indian Forest Act, 1927. However, denotification of any forest land requires prior approval by the Central government under the Forest(Conservation) Act, 1980 as well as the approval of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in accordance with the order dated 13.11.2000”.
