2% of India’s forest land is encroached

NEWDELHI: Nearly 2%, or 13,000 sq km, of India’s total forest area is occupied by encroachers, the environment ministry has said in reply to a query filed under the Right to Information Act. India’s total forest cover is 708,273 sq km.

The largest area encroached on is in Madhya Pradesh with about 5347.17 sq km, or nearly 7%, of 7,7414 sq km of forests being occupied by squatters; followed by Assam (11.28%) and Odisha (1.5%), according to the ministry.

The RTI application was filed by Akash Vashisht, a Ghaziabadbased legal activist ,and the reply from the environment ministry was dated July 23. Vashisht received the reply in August and made it public on Friday. “We have only compiled the encroachment data shared by states with us. These are not the latest figures,” said A K Prabhakar, assistant inspector general of forests. “State governments have the det a i l s o f what [ t ypes o f ] encroachments these are .”

The environment ministry data is significant because the Supreme Court is hearing an 11-year-old public interest litigation (PIL) filed by wildlife activists challenging the Forest Rights Act (FRA). They contend that bogus claims filed under the FRA, which gives legitimate forest dwellers the right to reside in, cultivate and conserve forest land, have undermined efforts to conserve forests.

A bench led by justice Arun Mishra had on February 13 ordered the eviction of an estimated 1 million forest dwellers whose forest rights claims had been rejected. But the order was stayed on February 28 after the Centre and the Gujarat government sought its modification following concerns raised by tribal rights activists and experts.

The area encroached on may be occupied by squatters or being used for agriculture, or people may have carried out construction on forest land,said Siddhanta Das, director general of forests.

“States have settled some rights under Forest Rights Act and rejected some. But rejected claimants haven’t been evicted yet. The state governments should act on this,” Das said.

Experts say the rights of legitimate forest dwellers haven’t been recognised in most states, which creates an impression that there is large-scale encroachment on forest land.

“The encroachment data released by the environment ministry has to be verified because recognition of forest rights is incomplete in most states,” said Tushar Dash, researcher with Community Forest Rights —Learning and Advocacy (CFR-LA), a non-governmental organisation.