A Look At The Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023

The Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 will be presented during the Monsoon session of the Parliament which is likely to begin today. State governments including Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, environmental and civil society organizations, activists and students have submitted their objections to the bill introduced by Shri Bhupender Yadav, the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Labour and Employment.

The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 came into force on 25^th October 1980 which was enacted for the conservation of forests by restricting de-reservation of forest and forest land for non-forest purposes. Section 2 and 3 of the act states that such de-reservation of the forest and forest land cannot be done without the prior approval of the central government under the advice of an advisory committee.

An exemption to the above forest clearance rules was provided by the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Act), 2006. Under the 2006 Act, the central government recognized and vested forest rights and provided certain exemptions to forest clearance for the forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other forest dwelling communities. Section 3 of the Act provides that the Central government can provide diversion of forest land for providing certain facilities managed by the government such as for the creation of schools, hospitals, anganwadis, fair price shops, roads, electric and telecommunication lines, tanks and other minor water bodies, minor irrigation canals, etc. The 2006 Act vests the forest rights to the forest dwelling communities only by a resolution passed by the Gram Sabha. Section 6 of the Act provides that the resolution of the Gram Sabha is forwarded to the Sub-divisional level committee, thereafter to the District level committee and the process is monitored by a State Level Monitoring Committee. Thus, it can be understood that the 2006 Act brings in a balance between the conservation of forest rights and protection of rights of forest dwelling communities and even this is achieved only by an elaborate procedure after seeking sanction of various authorities.

As per the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 the exemptions to the forest land is sought to be provided in the guise of facilitating social, economic and environmental needs. These exemptions are given to forest lands -situated alongside a rail line or a public road maintained by the Government, for making projects of national importance and concerning national security, for construction of security related infrastructure, for construction of defence related project or a camp for paramilitary forces or public utility projects. It also provides for generously giving away forest land for non-forest activities such as for the construction of wireless communications, construction of fencing, boundary marks or pillars, bridges and culverts, check dams, waterholes, trenches and pipelines, for establishment of zoo, safaris and eco-tourism facilities etc. This has three-fold implications. Firstly, this is contrary to the intent of the 1980 Act which was enacted for prevention of de-reservation of forest land, conversion of forest land for non-forest purposes and large-scale deforestation. Secondly, such forest clearance activities will also violate the rights of the forest dwelling communities which was protected vide the 2006 Act. Thus, it also weakens the existing 2006 Act. Thirdly, the exemptions to forest lands are provided without the consent or clearance by any authorities such as the Gram Sabha, Sub-divisional level committee, District level committee and State Level Monitoring Committee.

The Apex court in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulkpad v. Union of India (UOI) and Ors. (AIR 1997 SC 1228), has given a wider meaning to forest land to broaden the scope of their protection. The court defines thus, “The term forest land, occurring in Section 2, will not only include "forest" as understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in the Government record irrespective of the ownership. This is how it has to be understood for the purpose of Section 2 of the Act. The provisions enacted in the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 for the conservation of forests and the matters connected therewith must apply clearly to all forests so understood irrespective of the ownership or classification thereof.”. However, the 2023 amendment provides a much narrower interpretation to the term forest land by inserting section 1A to encompass only two types of land under its ambit which are- land declared or notified as forest under Indian Forest Act, 1927 or other laws and land recorded in government records as on or after the 25th October, 1980. Thus, the amendment is also contrary to the aforementioned judicial decision.

Further, the objective of the amendment is unclear as to how it intends to practice compensatory afforestation to mitigate climate change or increasing carbon stock by clearing natural forest land for non-forest uses. It also does not mention about loss of biodiversity, ecological imbalance or loss of wildlife that could result from clearing forest land. The amendment does not envisage a procedure for obtaining land area before envisioning creation of more forest and tree cover over such land areas. Nor, does the amendment suggest how it aims to provide livelihood for forest dependent communities without even referring to the 2006 Act which was enacted to protect the rights of forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other forest dwelling communities. The amendment seems to provide a myopic assessment to promote changes in the ecological, social and environmental regimes without taking note of conservation of forest lands, protection of wildlife and rights of the forest dwellers.

The concerns regarding the content as well as the procedure adopted to examine and pass the Bill ought to be reexamined. The amendment must be in conformity of already existing legislations such as the acts of 1980, 2006 and not in derogation to them. Renaming the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 to Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam without taking due care to bring balance between forest conservation, protection of rights of forest dwellers and economic activities depicts hasty approach from the part of the government. On the other hand, it must adopt a participatory and inclusive approach by accepting suggestions and modifications from the experts working in these domains.