`RECOGNITION OF PEOPLE'S RIGHTS WILL NOW STOP'
THE DRAFT amendment to the Indian Forest Act, 1927 is like the fanciful flight of a forester, who still embodies the colonial spirit. It delegates quasi-judicial powers to the forest department, and opens up forests to corporate interests.The amendment should have reviewed the existing categories of forests and changed the earlier ones (reserved, protected and village forests), and included those categories where habitat and community forest resource rights have been recognised. On the contrary, the new draft strengthens reserved forests, village forests and institutions like the Joint Forest Management Committee. It also brings in categories such as unclassed forests under the exclusive control of the forest department.
Instead of abolishing the existing colonial provisions in conflict with democratic laws like the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, or PESA, and the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, the proposed draft views forest dwellers as offenders, and aims at delegitimising and exterminating the rights of people where they have been recognised under these two Acts. It also ensures no further recognition of rights takes place in areas where they have not yet happened. It is biased against the pastoralists and those dependent on non-timber forest produce (NTFP).
Post FRA and PESA, gram sabhas have been engaged in sustainable management of forests, including regulated harvest and trade of NTFP. The draft ignores this. Instead of providing gram sabhas assistance through minimum support price mechanism for NTFP sale against exploitative markets, mechanisms to deal with the powerful timber and poaching mafia and adequate support during those times when they pass resolutions against the diversion of forests for industries, the draft aims at curtailing the individual and community rights, if a forest officer feels that they are not consistent with conservation.
In doing so, it has a dangerous aim of further legitimising the conversion of diverse forests into monocultures and facilitating easy diversion for industries. It is important to see this draft amendment in conjunction with other legal and policy changes aimed at diluting provisions of FRA and PESA, which require gram sabhas' prior informed consent for forest diversion. If the new law is passed, it will affect India's forests and violate international human rights and conservation commitments. (The writer is with Kalpavriksh, a Pune-based social and environmental organisation)