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On June 28, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) notified the Forest Conservation Rules, 2022, which are likely to be tabled in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament as the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2022.
The bill seeks to amend the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 whose sole aim has been to protect the forests of the country and prevent their conversion into agricultural lands, or grazing lands, or building of business or residential units.
Under the Act, any proposal involving diversion of forest land of more than five hectares must be given by the central government, through an advisory committee led by DG Forests.
What the New Rules Say
The new rules stipulate a two-stage approval process — “in principal” and “final approval” to be granted by the central government for any application seeking diversion of the forest land for non-forestry uses, including any kind of development/construction.
According to the government, the move is aimed at “streamlining the process of approvals” by reducing the timeline for arriving at the final decision, through parallel processing of proposals under other Acts and Rules, including Forest Right Act, 2006, and doing away with “redundant processes”.
Concerns Over Consent
However, the move has raised serious concerns over the rights of the Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest-dwellers which could get compromised during the process. Earlier, the state government would inform the advisory committee on the status of whether the forest rights of the locals were settled, after which the approvals were processed.
The new rules, however, are silent on the condition of consent from Gram Sabha and settlement of rights from the list of compliances which is currently needed to get any approvals from the state government. There are concerns that this could facilitate diversion of forest land to industry without settling the rights of forest dwellers, which the government continues to deny.
Opposition leaders allege that the rules violate the Forest Rights Act, 2006 by diluting the legal requirement of ensuring FRA compliance and of seeking the consent of Gram Sabha before diverting forest land. While this also led to a war of words between Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav on social media, MP and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat also registered her protest through a letter to the Environment Minister.
According to Karat, the bill would have far-reaching consequences in facilitating private companies to gain access and control of India’s forests. “It is objectionable, condemnable and unacceptable how the amended rules have totally eliminated the rights of Gram Sabhas and of tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers living in forests,” she wrote.
What the Govt Says
The Environment Ministry has allayed the concerns, assuring that the central government’s approval is merely a prior approval, and does not directly lead to non-forestry use or breaking of forest land, and is not de-linked from the compliance of FRA, 2006. It will actually be the state government order issued subsequently which will authorise the use of forest land for intended purposes, it maintains.
It further said that any approval to be considered under the new regime to be duly communicated to state and other agencies will stipulate mandatory compliance of provisions of FRA, 2006 before the state/UT government issues final diversion order for handing over the forest land to the user agency.
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