Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: The proposed Tamnar Inter-State Power Transmission Project has run into a forest-land issue in Dharbandora, with the Regional Empowered Committee (REC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) asking Goa authorities to address an alleged encroachment before the project progresses.
The matter surfaced during scrutiny of the proposal to divert forest land for the transmission project. Officials from the Goa Forest Department informed the REC that part of the land identified for diversion is not in the department’s possession and is allegedly occupied by a private individual.
The land in question is Survey No. 98 of the Unclassed Forest at Dharbandora village. Records show the 9.30-hectare parcel in the name of the Government of Goa, Daman & Diu, although the Forest Department does not have physical possession of it.
During the proceedings, the Deputy Conservator of Forests and the Range Forest Officer stated that the property has been shown as being under encroachment by Shankar Shivram Naik.
The REC has now asked the State Forest Department to proceed against the alleged encroachment under the relevant legal provisions. The committee has made it clear that the issue should be dealt with before the transmission project advances further.
A separate inspection conducted by the North Goa Forest Division also identified an abandoned laterite quarry within the same survey number. The inspection followed GPS coordinates supplied by Goa Tamnar Transmission Project Ltd. to identify an earth-breaking location.
In a letter dated July 6, 2026, the Deputy Conservator of Forests, North Goa Division, reported that the quarry was no longer active. Historical imagery available through Google was cited as indicating quarrying activity at the site in 2015-16.
The Forest Department, however, clarified that the proposed transmission line does not run through the abandoned quarry area.
Checks of the land records subsequently revealed the discrepancy between ownership and possession. Although the entire 9.30-hectare parcel is recorded as government land in Form I & XIV, it remains outside the physical possession of the Forest Department.
The inspection report prepared by the Range Forest Officer, Collem, also categorised the land under “other rights” and recorded the alleged encroachment by Shankar Shivram Naik.
The REC’s direction has been incorporated into the conditions linked to the Stage-I, or in-principle, forest clearance recommendation for the Tamnar project. The proposed power transmission project requires diversion of forest land across Goa and Karnataka.
