Ooty municipality to take over 15 acres of forest land used as dump yard

Udhagamandalam: About 15 acres of forest land at Theettukkal , which has been leased to the Ooty municipality and used as dump yard for several years, is to be acquired by the civic body under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

A 30-acre land owned by the municipality at Marlimund will be handed over to the forest department as compensation soon.

“A proposal to take over the land at Theettukkal on compensation basis was sent to the government 10 years ago,” Ooty municipal health officer Murali Shankar said.

After the lease period lapsed in 2012, the forest department served notice to the municipality to hand over the land back to the department.

However, the municipality sent another proposal to take over the land under the forest conservation Act. “The government accepted the proposal. The procedure is being speeded up. First phase of the procedure is over,” Murali Shankar said. “The second phase of procedure deals with mutual handing over of lands,” he added.

“Based on the present value of the Theettukkal dump yard area and the arear lease amount, a land equal to that amount as compensation has to be handed over to the forest department as per the proposal accepted by the government,” assistant conservator of forests Saravanakumar said. He said, “Second phase of the procedure in this connection is pending with the government.”

“We are planning to erect compound wall around the Theettukkal dump yard so that straying of animals would be curtailed. The garbage dumped there over the years will be put under a process called biomining,” Murali Shankar said.

Given the climatic condition of the hills, compositing would take quite a longer period as bacteria growth is slow in cold weather, he added. “A team from Chennai visited the place recently to find an alternative method for composting,” he said.