A sleight of hand by the MoEFCC

Govt to allow pvt sector to manage 40% of forests

In the above-sited newspaper report the MoEFCC has issued guidelines for its plan to open up forests to private industries, apparently to improve its productivity and quality. A basic justification for this is the “urgent need for improving quality of degraded forests” is the unfortunate limitedness of “public funds, which are limited and unable to meet the funding requirements for restoration of degraded forests.” The guideline then goes on to lay the blame for the degradation of India’s forests on the 300 or so million people who depend on the forests, for fuel, fodder, NTFPs, medicinal plants, etc. Not a word about the massive destructions caused, and still ongoing, by a variety of mining projects, dams, economic corridors, National & State highways, and monoculture plantations!
What is missing in the guideline is the complete blanking out of the millions of hectares of forests that have been diverted to non-forestry use over the years, usually in the name of development and other bloated national goals. In the present instance, there is no mention of the recognition of the Forest Rights that have been legally mandated under the  Forest Rights Act (2006), apart from the cursory mention of “Safeguarding of Forest Rights” (III.12.iii of the guidelines issued by MoEFCC), that relevant laws, rules and regulations will be followed. The statement more or less hangs in the air and it’s anybody’s guess what it means.

What we would like to bring to notice is that the  FRA is applicable to all types of forest lands, including degraded lands as defined in the FRA Sec 2 sub sec d, and this legal position of ‘degraded forest lands’ is not clearly stated in the guidelines. Furthermore, the benefit-sharing mechanism mentioned in the guidelines is on the lines of the Joint Forest Management programmes: this is incongruent when the FRA is in place and recognizes the rights and the responsibilities of the Gram Sabha and the local communities towards forest conservation, management and protection (Sec 3 (1) sub sec I of the FRA). There is also a complete silence with regard to the role of the local governance institutions (Gram Panchayats, Gram Sabhas) and their rights and roles with regard to their forests. It is unacceptable!

As they say What the state gives with one hand it takes away with the other!