Why is there a controversy on the forest Bill?

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Last Updated18/07/2023

The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 is likely to be tabled in the coming monsoon session of Parliament.
A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) which was looking at amendments to the Bill has approved the version sent by the government with almost no comment, revisions or suggestions.

Aim: To amend the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
Importance: It is enacted to protect India’s forests and empowers the Central government to regulate the extraction of forest resources by industries as well as forest-dwelling communities.
Forest Rights Act: It protects the rights of tribals and forest-dwellers dependent on forests for their livelihood.
- 1951-1975: About four million hectares of forest land has been diverted for various non-forestry purposes.
- 1980 to 2023: Under it, only a million hectares have been diverted.
- However, such protection was only available for areas already marked out as ‘forest’ in Central or State government records.
Godavarman Thirumulpad case, 1996 : It expanded the scope of such protection & even areas not formally notified as ‘forests’ but conforming to the ‘dictionary’ meaning of forests were protected.

India’s forest policy of 1988 prescribes a third of the country’s geographical area to be under forests.
Realistically, only 21% is under such cover and it is about 24% if one also accounts for tree cover outside areas under recorded forest, plantations, orchards.

Inserting a ‘preamble’: It will underline India’s commitment to preserving forests, their biodiversity and tackling challenges from climate change and amending the name of the Act to Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam from the existing Forest (Conservation) Act.
Application of the Act: It would only apply to lands notified in, any government record, as ‘forest’ on or after 1980.
Exemptions: If notified forest land was legally diverted between 1980 and 1996, for non-forest use, the Forest Conservation Act would not apply.
Strategic exemptions: Forest land situated 100 km away from international borders and to be used for “strategic projects of national importance” or land ranging from 5-10 hectares for security and defence projects.

A private plantation, or a reforested piece of land that wasn’t officially marked out as forest could be retrospectively earmarked — under the provisions of the Act — as such, forcing the developer of such a plantation to lose rights associated with that patch.
This was an ‘impediment’ to India’s plans of developing a ‘carbon sink’ of three billion tonnes by 2030 in line with its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
States were also apportioning forest tracts meant for plantations to companies for mining operations — a contravention of the Act’s intent.
The amendments, thus were necessary, in the Centre’s view, to craft new solutions beyond the Act’s original intent of only keeping forests from being exploited for industrial uses and, to aid reforestation.

Exemptions could be detrimental to significant forests in the Himalayan, trans-Himalayan and northeastern regions.
Clearing such forests without an appropriate “assessment and mitigation plan” will threaten the biodiversity of “vulnerable ecological and geologically sensitive areas” and trigger extreme weather events.
Restricting the legislation’s ambit only to areas recorded as forests on or after October 25, 1980 would mean leaving out significant sections of forest land and many biodiversity hot spots to be potentially sold, diverted, cleared, and exploited for non-forestry purposes.
Dissent against the move to rename the bill as Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam.
The Act waters down the Godavarman judgment and a few State governments have said that forest conservation comes under the domain of both the Centre and States.