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Activists share concerns over forest bill provisions
The joint parliament committee scrutinising the draft legislation has cleared all proposed modifications, even as some opposition MPs submitted notes of dissent
New Delhi:
Environmentalists, community leaders and activists from Himalayan states on Saturday raised concerns about several provisions of the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
The sensitive ecology and geology in the Himalayan states already makes them extremely vulnerable to disasters and exempting the provision of prior environmental clearance would further put these regions at risk, they said at a media briefing. Moreover, if the provision of prior consent of gram sabhas (village councils) is weakened, it could impact a large number of poor and vulnerable forest dwelling communities, they said.
The joint parliament committee scrutinising the draft legislation has cleared all proposed modifications, even as some opposition MPs submitted notes of dissent. The proposed law brings about sweeping changes to how forests are governed in India and seeks to clarify what constitutes a forest and, hence, attract provisions of forest conservation law in case of any diversion.
In its 201-page report submitted on Thursday, the parliamentary panel said it received 1,309 memoranda along with comments from various state governments, departments and ministries and four notes of dissent from opposition MPs within the committee.
On Saturday, environmentalists said two provisions are particularly worrying for them: a clause exempting environmental clearance for forest land within 100km along international borders in case of linear projects of national importance and concerning national security, and the silence on consent given by affected village councils and recognising the law of the rights of forest dwellers.
“I am from Lahaul and Spiti, and if this provision covers up to 100km from the border, then it can reach up to Mandi. Himachal Pradesh is struggling with disasters and breakdown of critical infrastructure. We haven’t recovered from the devastating floods this monsoon. If there is a freeway for roads and other linear infrastructure, it can be devastating,” said Takpa Tenzin, president of the Spiti Civil Society. “Moreover, will gram sabha consent be taken? We really need to know.”
Roads, railways and transmission lines are the main linear infrastructure that can have significant impacts on Himalayan ecology, according to Ravi Chopra, an Uttarakhand-based environmentalist and former chairman of the high-powered committee on Char Dham roads appointed by the Supreme Court.
“We have seen how the government ensured that the Char Dham roads bypassed environmental impact assessment (EIA). In several examples during the project, we saw that adverse impact could have been avoided had the project been scrutinised,” Chopra aid. “For example, a lot of landslides took place in the Tankapur to Pithoragarh stretch (in Uttarakhand), there were 102 sensitive zones and 45 landslides had already taken place in 2019. A geological investigation and EIA may have helped avoid this. The muck went into the river. When muck goes into rivers, the river level rises and it can cause devastating floods.”
In the case of the 880km road widening project to the four Hindu shrines in the Himalayas, also known as Char Dham, the work bypassed EIAs altogether, he said. New national highways and expansion of highways that are longer than 100km need prior environmental clearance but this project was broken up into several small stretches separated by 16 bypasses to bypass the safeguard, Chopra said.
“We are a very small state. The 100km clause can cover entire Sikkim. Only because of the gram sabha consent provision under Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, we could stop a highly dangerous hydropower project. Rivers in Sikkim also affect neighbouring West Bengal and Bangladesh. We are particularly worried about impacts from hydropower projects,” said Mayalmit Lepcha, president of Sikkim Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association and general secretary of affected citizens of Teesta river.
Northeastern states including Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Sikkim, all ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party or its allies, have said in the parliamentary committee that the clause on exempting environmental clearance in forest land within 100km along the international borders would cover their entire states and open up ecologically important forest areas to a change in land use, HT reported on Saturday. Himachal Pradesh, ruled by the Congress, has also sought clarity on this provision.
The environment ministry has said exemptions will be applicable to such qualifying linear projects as may be identified by the defence and home ministries.
The environment ministry has said that the proposed legislation does not violate the Forest Rights Act. “The State Government or the Union Territory Administration, as the case may be, after obtaining the final approval of the Central Government under Section 2 of the Act, shall ensure the recognition of rights under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest dwellers (Recognition of Forest rights) Act, which is the FR Act,” it said. “So, the State Government will issue the final permission only when the Gram Sabha of the concerned area has given the permission in writing.”
