{"id":30141,"date":"2018-10-26T14:24:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T08:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=30141"},"modified":"2018-10-26T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T08:54:00","slug":"anti-forest-anti-forest-dweller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/anti-forest-anti-forest-dweller\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-forest, anti-forest dweller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/anti-forest-anti-forest-dweller\/article23438512.ece\"><strong>Anti-forest, anti-forest dweller<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What has happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last month, Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Mahesh Sharma informed Parliament that his Ministry has collected over Rs. 50,000 crore in a Central compensatory afforestation fund (CAF). This money is to be used though the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016 or CAF, a purported mechanism to offset forest loss. Before issuing forest clearances to a mine, dam or industry, the Ministry fixes a monetary value for the forest that is to be destroyed and collects this as \u201ccompensation\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>CAF is flawed<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Because it reduces their displacement, hardship and loss of livelihood and food sources to a monetary value to be paid to the state<\/li>\n<li>The law, and now its draft rules, spells further capture of Adivasi lands in the name of compensatory afforestation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Misuse of CAF funds by bureaucracy<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Placing a huge fund at the unilateral disposal of the forest bureaucracy, giving it unchecked powers to undertake plantations on private and common property resources<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>No safeguards against forest bureaucracy<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The rules provide for mere \u201cconsultation\u201d with communities in the planning of compensatory afforestation: a clear step backward from the consent provisions in the FRA and the 2014 Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>CAF projects on forest land<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An ongoing study of 2,479 compensatory afforestation projects across 10 States by forest rights groups has shown that over 70% were on existing forest land, including dense forests<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Violence against protesting villagers<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The study chronicled multiple forms of state violence against villagers protesting against such plantations (including beatings, arrests, criminal cases, food insecurity and forcible takeover of land).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Under implemented FRA<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Forest Rights Act (FRA) was enacted in 2006 to provide forest-dependent communities with resource rights via individual and community forest land titles<\/li>\n<li>It also recognised long-standing knowledge systems and community efforts in protection of forest resources by formally establishing the authority of the gram sabha in forest stewardship<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A decade on, the FRA remains grossly under-implemented, and its vision of devolving power to rural communities stonewalled.\u00a0<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Resource rights movements by Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities ignored<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Since the CAF Bill was floated, forest rights advocates report that over 2,500 gram sabhas across India have opposed it<\/li>\n<li>But resource rights movements by Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities are marginal in our public discourse, except during momentous events like the recent Nashik-Mumbai march.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The government\u2019s ongoing policies do not address such demands for justice and dignity<\/p>\n<p>Instead, they prepare the ground for a fresh chapter of the violent denial of rights and ecological damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anti-forest, anti-forest dweller What has happened? Last month, Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Mahesh Sharma informed Parliament that his Ministry has collected over Rs. 50,000 crore in a Central compensatory afforestation fund (CAF). This money is to be used though the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016 or CAF, a purported&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/anti-forest-anti-forest-dweller\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Anti-forest, anti-forest dweller<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704868663},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}