Arbitrary Relocation from Protected Areas
Relocating people from protected areas (national parks and sanctuaries) has long been a favourite solution to every problem for some wildlife conservationists, and it has eagerly been adopted by the government too. But relocation has been an unmitigated disaster. The best example of this is the current disaster in tiger reserves, but it will now not be the only one.
Such relocation had been stopped in other protected areas by section 4(2) of the Forest Rights Act, which imposes stringent conditions to prevent arbitrary relocation of people without any justification. On February 8th, 2011, however, the Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a new set of guidelines (attached below) for such relocation. These guidelines would have begun the process of forced relocation anew across the country.
On February 14th, the Ministry responded to our statement below with a press note "clarifying" the issue. But this "clarification" only muddied the waters still further. Our Response to the Ministry's Press Note is available here. Finally, on March 8th, the new guidelines were withdrawn. A new set of draft guidelines address a few of the concerns, but don't deal with the core issues. Our press statement on the draft guideilnes is here.
For more details see our press statements: