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19. According to the petitioners, the nature of evidences enumerated under Rule 13 are merely illustrative and not exhaustive. The main grievance redressed by the petitioners is that a satellite imagery has been shown as a piece of evidence under Rule 13, Clause (1), Sub-clause (a), but the authorities have been insisting for a satellite imagery provided only by Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Applications and Geo Informatics, Gandhinagar. According to the petitioners, the said institute has been authorized by the respondents to use satellite imagery and have been entrusted with the duty of acquiring the imageries and preparing maps indicating the areas of cultivation as common plots. According to the petitioners, the respondents should also consider evidence of satellite imagery other than those provided by BISAG. It is also the case of the petitioners that under Rule 13, Clause (1), Sub-clause (c) the physical attributes such as house, huts and permanent improvements made to land including leveling, bands, check dams and the like are also pieces of evidences which the respondents are duty bound to consider while deciding the claims but the respondents have refused to consider the same despite the fact that the forest rights committee constituted under the Rules vested the lands in question and prepared panchnamas indicating such physical attributes.
(A) The user of satellite imageries is highly unscientific. The BISAG, which has been given the task of preparing maps from the satellite imageries, overlays the village map over the concerned satellite imageries of 2005 and 2007 and in the forest number, they earmark as common plots the areas where they find cultivation in year 2005 and 2007 and then prepare maps, the print-out of which are sent for the use of them by the SDLCs and DLCs. According to petitioners, this procedure is highly unscientific as it is very difficult to earmark the common plots thus prepared actually on the ground and more often than not SDLCs and DLCs do not resort to this, resultantly by assumption they decide the claims.