The Forest Rights Act

Data released this week shows what autocratic forest clearance system means - destruction of people and forests

Friends,

If there was ever a need for proof that the system of forest management in this country is autocratic, brutally unjust and driven by vested interests, it came this week. The country's forest clearance system, which supposedly regulates land use on 23% of the country's land area, has been exposed for the sham that it is. The result - widespread displacement and impoverishment of people as well as the devastation of the environment - has, however, not received the attention that it should. The only solution - a more democratic and accountable process of forest land control - has been systematically sabotaged by the Central and State governments.

On Thursday, the Centre for Science and Environment published data that shows, among other things, that 2.04 lakh hectares of forest land were diverted for "non-forest use" in the last five years alone. It also showed that the rate is rising sharply, and that more land was diverted last year than in any year since 1980. The number of projects receiving clearance is far more than required, even by the projections of the concerned industries themselves. Meanwhile, two days before the press conference, the three non-official members of the Forest Advisory Committee wrote a strong letter to the Environment Minister stating that "We are being forced to take decisions on the basis of inadequate and inaccurate information... if this state of anomie continues, our continued membership or for that matter the core functions of the Committee will cease to have much purpose."

The consequences of this mad scramble for grabbing of forest land are not just "environmental" in the usually understood sense. This land grab means devastation for the lives of thousands of people every year and the loss of the homes, fields and ancestral homelands of entire communities. Most of those affected are never given either compensation or rehabilitation and are left to survive by whatever means they can devise.

Neither of this week's revelations should be particularly surprising. The forest clearance system is built around the 1980 Forest (Conservation) Act, under which the "diversion" of forest land for non-forest use is decided on by the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests (advised by the Forest Advisory Committee). None of those involved is in any way accountable to the people, and in particular not to those most directly affected - forest dwellers. As a Parliamentary Standing Committee observed in 2008, in this land grab, forest dwellers are "neither informed, nor consulted, nor compensated."

The result of this kind of unaccountable power is precisely what was revealed this week. It is no surprise that the FAC does not function well; why would it? Where is the imperative for the Environment Ministry to be careful about its decisions when there is no way those affected can hold them accountable?  Moreover, how can a body of a few people, meeting once a month, really consider all the requirements for forest land in the entire country?  In turn, absolute power in a centralised system inevitably promotes private interests - and hence it is no surprise that 96% of all applications for forest diversion are approved. So much for forest "conservation" under the Forest (Conservation) Act.

A dent was made in this system in 2006, with the passage of the Forest Rights Act, and subsequently in 2009, when the Environment Ministry finally conceded that it had to follow the law and passed an order requiring consent of forest dwellers prior to the destruction of their homelands. Subsequently, both have been totally ignored and illegal land grabbing has continued in the forests. This was and is the only democratic check on the absolute power of the forest bureaucracy, and clearly this is why it has been violated in such a gross manner.

Meanwhile, the Forest Rights Act provided the seeds for a different system of forest management, whereby villages would also have the right and power to protec their forests. This too is being subverted by the forest bureaucracy, so far with a great degree of success. Programs like Joint Forest Management continue to be pushed and heavily funded, such as through CAMPA funds (raised through forest destruction) and the Green India Mission, even as actual democratic forest management is ignored.

As long as this system remains in place, the tragedies and absurdities revealed last week will continue to rule. The only hope for the future is the united struggle of forest dwellers and all democratic forces against this brutal system of resource grabbing.

Campaign for Survival and Dignity
Ph: 9873657844, www.forestrightsact.com