Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, J. - (1.) SERIES of litigations are pending before the Hon"ble Supreme Court concerning environment and forests relating to survey of ecosystem of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Two applications being IA No.502/1999 and IA No.723-24/2001 were filed in connection with such a Writ Petition being Writ Petition (Civil) No.202/1995. An order was passed by the Hon"ble Supreme Court on 7th May, 2002 in those two applications containing several directions for protection of natural forests as well as regeneration thereof in A and N Islands. A portion of the said order which is relevant for the present purpose is reproduced hereunder:- "(8) The licences of all the saw"mills and wood-based industries shall not be renewed after 31st March, 2003. This will not debar the authorities from canceling licences in accordance with law, if there is no breach of the Licence Committee by the Licencees before that date. (9) The ecology of the area does not permit any kind of industrial activity for which the wood is likely to be consumed. Therefore, licences of wood-based industries shall stand cancelled but they will be permitted to exhaust the existing stock till 31st March, 2003. (10) The Union of India if it so adopts and thinks appropriate may take steps for re-locating the dislocated wood-based industries in the main land area anywhere in India as long as it is not within the vicinity of forest area. Henceforth for meeting the local requirements it is only the Government saw-mills which shall operate. No fresh wood or logs shall be given to any of the saw-mills or the wood-based industries till fresh working plans are prepared and submitted to this Court and the approval obtained. (11) With immediate effect, there will be no movement of logs or timber in any form including sawn timber from Andaman and Nicobar Islands to any part of India or anywhere else."
(2.) PURSUANT to the aforesaid order of the Hon"ble Supreme Court, all the saw-mills, ply wood units and other wood based units were closed in A and N Islands. Subsequently, after devastation of the A and N Islands by the Tsunami earthquake, an application being I.A. No.2208 in the said writ petition being WP(C) No.202 of 1995 was filed by A and N Islands Small Scale Wood Based Industries Association inter alia praying for modification of the aforesaid order passed by the Hon"ble Supreme Court on 7th May, 2002 so that the units of the members of the applicant Association may be permitted to function with the local supply of timber or imported timber for supplying the swan timber to the various places of the Islands for the benefit of rural and earthquake Tsunami victims. Such modification was also sought for, so that the members of the said Association are also permitted to function for extracting and working on the uprooted non-forest trees for the private land for meeting the requirement of the local need. While dealing with the said application, the Hon"ble Supreme Court passed an order on 25th April, 2008 directing the Central Empowered Committee(CEC) to file its response within four weeks. The applicant was also permitted to file additional application suggesting the ways and means by which they would prevent the illicit use of timber/forest trees. Ultimately the CEC submitted its report before the Hon"ble Supreme Court wherein the following recommendations were made:- "a) the existing Government saw mill at Betapur, Middle Andaman may be upgraded and renovated by the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Department. In addition, upto five make shift saw mills, each with one Vertical Band Saw and one Horizontal Band Saw, may be permitted to be set up in the Islands at the locations to be decided by the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Department. b) the upgraded Government saw mill in Middle Andaman Island as well as these five make shift saw mills may be operated by the Forest Department or other Government Agencies/ Corporation or on public private partnership basis. c) The detailed guidelines, procedure and the terms and conditions in this regard may be decided by the State Forest Department and which inter alia should include: (i) the locations of the make shift saw mills; (ii) procedure for the selection of the person(s) in case the Government saw mill at Betapur, Middle Andaman or such make shift saw mill(s) is/are decided to be run on public private partnership basis; (iii) the species of the local timber/imported timber that would be allowed to be used by such saw mills; (iv) proper records such as the receipt, conversion, disposal and other registers to be maintained in the unit; (v) details of the periodic returns to be filed by each unit; and (vi) the checks and balances to prevent the use of the illicitly cut timber and the procedure for the termination of the contract. d) A periodic review should be carried out by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Forest Department to assess and decide the locations of the make shift saw mills and whether their number can be curtailed, considering that over time the Tsunami related requirements of wood is likely to come down." The said report was accepted by the Hon"ble Supreme Court on 21s November, 2008 with the following orders:- "The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Small Scale Wood Based Industries Association in Andaman and Nicobar Islands has filed this application seeking permission to have saw mills in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The CEC has made series of recommendations as to how the regulation of supply of timber and making available the timer to these units will have a serious impact leading to deforestation. The suggestions/recommendations made by the CEC are acceptable to the applicant and it may take further steps in the matter to see that these suggestions/recommendations are complied with."
(3.) SUBSEQUENTLY, the Assistant Conservator of Forests (Planning and Statistical Cell) intimated the General Secretary of the Andaman and Nicobar Small Scale Wood Based Industries Association by his letter dated 31st March, 2009 that the Administration of Andaman and Nicobar Islands decided to set up four make shift saw mills in South Andaman and one make shift saw mill in North Andaman on the condition that they will supply sawn timber to Nicobar and Little Andaman islands as per the requirement and the price fixed by the Forest Department. The five members of the said Association who were allowed to operate their make shift saw mills at different locations were also mentioned in the said letter. Those five members of the Association are as follows:- (1) M/s Amarias Trading Co. Saw Mill (2) M/s Mukesh Lall Saw Mill (3) Andaman Cottage Match Industries (4) Arasan Cottage Match Industry and Saw Mill (5) Andaman Cottage Pencil Wood Industries In fact, agreement had also been entered into between the Administration of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and those five units for allowing those five units to operate their respective make shift saw mills at different locations as mentioned in the said agreement. The terms and conditions under which the said units are required to operate the said saw mills, have also been mentioned in the said agreement.;