Proposed amendments to the Forest Conservation Act are a bad idea

Source: This post is based on the article “Proposed amendments to the Forest Conservation Act are a bad idea” published in Indian Express on 16th October 2021.

Syllabus: Gs3- Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.

Relevance:  Environmental protection vs Development

Synopsis:  Government seek deregulation by reducing scrutiny over certain decisions to deforest, thereby weakening safeguards.

Introduction

Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued a letter documenting 14 aspects that it seeks to change in the key forest legislation, the Forest Conservation Act,1980. The proposed amendments to the FCA, work to restrict the scope of applicability of the Act.

What is the significance of the Forest Conservation Act,1980?

This law has been instrumental in reducing deforestation as it requires approval from the central government when forests have to be diverted for non-forestry purposes.

The regulatory mechanism of forest clearances allows the ministry to deliberate on whether deforestation should be permitted or not and what the conditions should be if such a permit is granted.

What is the policy stand of the present government w.r.t environmental safeguards?

The present government has been working towards amending, changing, and recrafting environmental laws in India since 2014 to improve ease of doing business.

Some contentious attempts have been the draft Environment Impact Assessment notification, amendments to the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

Environment Impact Assessment notification: Government sought to create exemptions to the requirement of environmental clearances for a set of industries.

Indian Forest Act, 1927: it gave the forest department wide discretionary powers, including the power to shoot at sight.

However, these amendments have been revoked because of sharp criticism from environmental movements across the country.

The recent amendments proposed to the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 cannot be seen in isolation of these other attempts to remake environmental laws in India.

What are the concerns related to the proposed changes in the Forest Conservation Act, 1980?

One, Changes proposed in the current definition of forests. It aims to implicitly define what does not constitute forests by creating a set of exceptions to the Act. These exceptions include forests in border areas where strategic projects need to be built, private land where plantations are to be established, and forest land which was acquired before 1980 for the construction of railways and highways.

Currently, the definition of Forest includes land recognised as forest by the government as well as that which comes under the dictionary meaning of forest land based on the Supreme Court decision in the T N Godavarman case.

Two, more emphasis is on creating an enabling regulatory environment for setting up plantations. It argues that these plantations will not attract the provisions of the FCA. But, It does not define what the nature of these plantations should be and where they can take place.

Three, exceptions enable deforestation as opposed to regulating it. The amendments seek to deregulate certain decisions to deforest like the use of extended oil drilling for the extraction of oil and gas. Which the ministry says is environmental-friendly and thus qualifies for a legal exception. There have not been sufficient ecological studies to support this.

Four, it limits citizen participation, prevents citizen oversight on these anti-environmental decisions. The proposed amendments are listed as a set of issues without detailing what the amendments are going to be. This makes it difficult for citizens and experts to partake in a public consultation process. The proposed amendments are not translated into other languages and provide a very short window of 15 days to providing comments.

Fifth, an integral part of the forest clearance process is the requirement of consent of the gram sabha. The creation of exceptions to the requirement of forest clearances directly results in the cancellation of the application of this progressive legal provision.

What is the way forward?

The changes being proposed to the FCA need to be done in consultation with forest-dwelling communities whose livelihoods and rights are likely to be affected by the remaking of this law.

In conclusion, the deregulatory approach to changes being made to India’s environmental laws needs to be scrutinised.

Limiting deforestation should guide regulatory decision-making, not compensating with plantations.