Nipped in the bud
Two major plans of the Kerala government to promote vanilla cultivation have failed to come to fruition.
Firstly, the Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, which was introduced in 2002, has yet to be passed. The bill proposed to amend the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963. The act imposes a ceiling on landholding except in the case of plantations, private forests and lands principally cultivated with tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cardamom or cinnamon.
The new bill had sought to define vanilla gardens containing not less than 2000 plants per hectare (ha) as plantations for exempting them from the ceiling provisions.
The second decision envisaged the Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) sub-leasing its landholding to seven private parties, ostensibly for taking up vanilla cultivation. This move got stalled following objections raised in the legislative assembly and by the Kerala forest department (FD). PCK had decided to sub-lease 458 ha out of its total holding of around 16,600 ha for 14 years. But the Opposition protested against the move, describing it as a sell-out.
The FD contended that the tract in question was forestland. Hence any alteration of its status would need to be cleared by the state government as well as the Union government under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
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