Overview

• The MoEFCC’s Shillong regional office authorised divisional forest officers to initiate legal proceedings against M K Yadava under Rule 15(2) of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, requiring an action-taken report by July 13.
• Yadava approved commando battalion camps on 11.5 hectares in Damchera and 26 hectares in Geleky without prior central clearance, triggering show-cause notices in May 2024.
• The Damchera camp has received ex post facto clearance and the NGT principal bench closed that case, while the Geleky site remains under review by the NGT’s Kolkata bench.
• The ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee earlier granted rare retrospective approvals with penalties, a move critics say undermines preventive enforcement.
• Observers warn that extended tenures and overlapping roles of senior forest officials complicate holding high-ranking officers to account for conservation breaches.