The University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM), promoted by the Education Research and Development Foundation, has been indicted by the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for building on encroached forest land and now faces a penalty of over Rs 150 crore.
According to the committee’s report, USTM in Ri-Bhoi district occupies nearly 25 hectares of forest land without statutory approval from the Centre. The panel has urged that the entire occupied area, along with surrounding constructions, be restored to its original forest condition within a year. The fine, it said, should be utilised to remove “illegal structures” and to carry out ecological restoration.
The CEC noted that “massive” and “indiscriminate” destruction of the site has been carried out. “The breaking of land has been done devastatingly, and the surroundings have been heavily disturbed,” the report stated.
The findings revive political controversy that erupted in August last year when Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma accused the university of contributing to flash floods in Guwahati by cutting hills and clearing forests. He had provocatively termed the phenomenon “flood jihad”, a charge USTM firmly denied.
The report was prepared in response to petitions before the Supreme Court concerning widespread environmental degradation in Ri-Bhoi and East Khasi Hills districts of Meghalaya and its spillover effects in Assam. The CEC functions as a technical advisory body to the court on forest and environment matters.
In its analysis, the committee concluded that of the 15.71 hectares where USTM stands, 13.62 hectares is forest land. It also found violations in a second land parcel of 12.13 hectares earmarked for the PA Sangma Memorial Medical College, where 7.64 hectares had already been disturbed. The Meghalaya Forest Regulation, 1973, was breached, the CEC said, adding that the foundation’s application for forest clearance is still under examination.
Also read: Sangma, Sarma form panel to probe USTM ‘flood jihad’ claims
The penalties, computed from June 2017 for the USTM site and from April 2019 for the medical college land, have been calculated under seven heads. These include compensatory afforestation, environmental compensation, tree felling, restoration costs and demolition. The cumulative liability stands at Rs 150.35 crore.
The CEC also flagged illegal mining, quarrying and stone crushing across Ri-Bhoi and recommended that such activities be suspended until an official review is undertaken.
The report underlines how statutory warnings were ignored. In 2017, the Union Environment Ministry’s regional office had directed the Meghalaya government to verify land status. Though it initially identified 13.03 hectares as non-forest, the regional office subsequently confirmed that 13.62 hectares under USTM were indeed forest land. The university and its promoter were asked to seek diversion approval under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, but no clearance was obtained.
“The breaking of land has been done devastatingly,” the CEC observed, pointing to extensive ecological disruption. The committee stressed that restoration must be prioritised to ensure compliance with conservation laws and to curb further degradation.
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