In March 2023, the government proposed amendments to India’s Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, which according to some, weaken the Act’s primary purpose, which is to protect and conserve the country’s forests. In this article, you can read more about the forest conservation act amendments for the IAS exam. This topic is relevant for the polity as well as environment segments.
Forest Conservation Act Amendment Objectives
The following are the mains objectives of the amendment bill:
- To build forest carbon stock by raising plantations.
- To make land available for developers to meet their legal obligation towards compensatory afforestation in lieu of forest land diverted for development projects.
The Bill tries to achieve both by restricting the applicability of the FC Act and by freeing up land that is currently locked up as unrecorded forests.
Know more about the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 in the linked article.
How much area will be affected?
- To provide a sense of scale, take into account the most recent State of Forests Report (SFR 2021), which documents India’s forest area as 713,789 square kilometres. Approximately 28%, or 197,159 square kilometres, which is approximately the size of Gujarat, is not classified as ‘forest.’
Exemptions provided in the amendment bill:
- In recent times, several executive orders have been issued to waive the requirement of forest clearance for certain types of projects such as projects of national importance and national security. For example, between 2014 and 2017, the construction of defense roads within 100 km of the LAC was exempted from obtaining forest clearance.
- Similar exemptions were granted for critical public utilities in 106 LWE-affected districts for projects.
- Furthermore, the Bill adds silvicultural operations, construction of zoos and wildlife safaris, eco-tourism facilities, and any other activities specified by the Central Government to the list of activities exempt from the FC Act.
- These broad exemptions grant a lot of retrospective decision-making power to the Centre.
Forest Conservation Amendment Bill Concerns
- The amendment Bill, instead of completing the demarcation process on the ground, seeks to limit the applicability of the FC Act only to land recorded as ‘forest’.Â
- This will have the effect of removing the protection of the Act from millions of hectares of land that have the characteristics of forests, but are not notified as such.
- Limiting the applicability of the FC Act would result in fewer projects needing to obtain forest clearance, which is often seen as an obstacle by both government and private developers. However, this move would also make it easier for developers to obtain forest clearance when they require it.
- The Bill claims to keep up with dynamic changes and improve the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. The amendment’s scope narrows down to promoting plantations to achieve carbon neutrality by limiting the Act’s extent.
- Compensatory afforestation is mandatory for obtaining forest clearance, and it involves planting trees on non-forest land equivalent in size to the degraded forest land or twice its area. This requirement limits developers’ demand for forest land due to limited land availability.
- Once the FC Act no longer applies to land, it can be used for growing plantations and offsetting an equal area of forest land that is diverted. This would encourage the development of private land banks of plantations and simplify the forest clearance process.
- Conservationists are concerned that this mechanism could result in the loss of unrecorded forests to plantations, leading to the diversion of recorded forests for projects.Â
Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023:- Download PDF Here
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