E-Paper
SC issues notice to Centre over plea against forest act
The court agreed to examine the issue without specifying any date when the matter is to be next heard
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre on a plea challenging the constitutionality of the recent amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Act.
The bench, headed by justice BR Gavai and comprising justices Aravind Kumar and PK Mishra, issued the notice to the Centre on a petition filed by 13 people, mostly retired public servants, including five former principal chief conservators of forest. The petition stated that the 2023 Amendment Act “will radically undermine India’s decade-old forest governance regime”.
This decision held that ‘forest land’ as defined in Section 2 of the 1980 Act would include not only forests as understood in the dictionary sense but any area recorded as forest in the government records. According to the petition, the amended Act will result in much of the protected forest land to be stripped of any legal protection as enjoyed by it earlier.
The court agreed to examine the issue without specifying any date when the matter is to be next heard.
Senior advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen representing the petitioners told the court that the new changes also exempt activities such as safaris, zoos and eco-tourism facilities in forests that will harm the delicate ecological balance of these spaces.
The bench, also comprising justices Aravind Kumar and PK Mishra, said, “If you have to save forests, you have to involve local population. Due to eco-terrorism and tiger safari, their participation will be thereas the local population will get employment as a result of these activities.” Sen said that the amendments do not suggest any regulation and a “carte blanche” exemption must not be given as the judgment of this court had held the sway over forests in the country for nearly three decades.
The petition pointed out that by permitting commercial activity in forests, the Act ignores the associated negative impacts on forests and wildlife with the creation of permanent structures, access roads, power transmission lines and other supporting infrastructure for such zoos and safaris.
The petition filed by advocate Kaushik Chaudhary said, “Each diversion of land, without any cumulative ceiling being prescribed across the country, will pockmark our forests with cancerously growing deforested ‘islands’ and fragment them, causing enormous ecological loss.”
Under the changes brought by the Centre and cleared by Parliament in August this year, forest land up to 10 hectares is exempt from scrutiny under the Act if it is being proposed to be used for construction of ‘security related infrastructure’ with there being no clarity on what it would include. “These kinds of exemptions will sound the death-knell of forests in India,” the petition stated.
One of the petitioners also includes former IAS officer and wildlife expert MK Ranjitsinh, who led the advisory team formed to assist the court on re-introduction of cheetahs in India. The petitioners further objected to the untrammeled powers given to the central government to permit diversion of forest land without any parliamentary supervision or regulatory control.
The amendments had been earlier considered by a Joint Committee of Parliament set-up to review the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill 2023. The petition claimed this committee was “misled” as it took the assurance given by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change to protect all categories of forests on face value. It said that a greater degree of responsibility is cast on the legislature while dealing with environmental laws as it involves resources belonging to the community.
