New forest rules: Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren protests but is he serious?

In November’s last week, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren found himself in a fix when senior forest officials presented a tip regarding the Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 (FC Rules). After minutely examining the note, Soren penned a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 1.

Soren played safe and put the ball in the BJP’s court by expressing to the PM his strong reservation about the new rules. By doing so, he somewhat looked to compensate for the political loss that the state government would likely face due to the new rules.

What affects the Jharkhand government most is the Centre passing the onus to states to “protect” the tribal rights. Under the FC Rules, 2022, a collector does not require to obtain the consent of gram sabhas before in-principle approvals. According to the provision mentioned in Rule 9(6) B, a state government or Union Territory administration, “as the case may be, after receiving the “final” approval of the central government under Section 2 of the (FC) Act and after fulfilment and compliance of the provisions of all other acts and rules made thereafter, as applicable including ensuring settlement of the rights under the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (Recognition of Forests Rights) Act, 2006 (No.2 of 2007), shall issue order for diversion assignment of lease or dereservation”.

This means the Centre can give its final approval and thereafter leave it to the state government to pass an order for dereservation or diversion or assignment. It is then left to the state government to ensure that the claims of forest dwellers are settled. Under the FC Rules, 2022, the Central government has now passed on the responsibility to states to ensure compliance with laws, including the FRA, while issuing the final order, which reduces the statutory requirement under the FCA and FRA to a mere formality. The development, it is apprehended, may push state authorities to resort to violations of forest rights.

“It will be a typical situation for any state government; if it takes gram sabha consent and ensures compliances, it will have to convince tribals and green activists, and that will not be an easy task,” said a senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) official, adding that if it failed to pass an order, the state government could be politically dubbed anti-development or seen as creating hurdles in the execution of popular projects.

Bhupesh Baghel, chief minister of another tribal-dominated state Chhattisgarh, has also written to the PM about the same.

There is nothing more that they can do other than write a letter to score over politically and present themselves as pro-tribals, according to a political observer. After all, tribal voters in both states can play spoilsport in the electoral prospects of the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, respectively, they added.

Furthermore, the FC Rules, 2022, proposes the setting up of land banks in community common lands and revenue forests for compensatory afforestation allocations. It also introduces Accredited Compensatory Afforestation, a new scheme where private tree plantations can be treated as readymade afforested areas that can be offered as compensatory afforestation, besides allowing corporations to give land in other states. Though it could disturb a state's forest cover, the  clause does not have much political significance. Soren’s letter to the Prime Minister also underlines it.

The Jharkhand Chief Minister writes: “However, in the new notifications of 2022, this condition for the consent of the gram sabha has been shockingly completely obliterated. A situation has now been created where once forest clearance is granted, everything else becomes a mere formality. Almost inevitably, state governments will be under even greater pressure from the Centre to accelerate the diversion of forest land.”

 Though the environment activists have strong reservations about the FC Rules, 2022, for setting aside the FRA and gram sabhas, they are apprehensive about political parties’ stand. “My experience says Soren will do nothing after writing the letter to the prime minister,” says Sanjay Basu Mallick of Jharkhand Jungle Bachao Andolan. Though the chief minister is advocating forest rights, he himself has failed to implement the FRA in the state, Mallick says, adding not a single title of the community forest resources right (CFRR) has been distributed in Jharkhand.

 Alok Shukla, convenor of Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, says the Congress government is crying foul on gram sabhas but is itself violating the norms in the state. “In Chhattisgarh, we are opposing the Adani group-operated coal mines citing nod from gram sabhas. Instead of taking action, the state government is ignoring the issue,” says Shukla.

 According to political observers, the JMM and the Congress are trying to foil the BJP’s move to reach out to the tribal population. After all, the issue of forest rights and tribals have always been a political hot potato in both states. No political party wants to create a vacuum as the community powered both JMM and Congress to trounce BJP in the two states. While the JMM managed to bag 25 of 28 the tribal seats, the Congress won 25 of the 29 tribal seats in Chhattisgarh in last Assembly polls.

 Both Baghel and Soren have joined hands to consolidate their tribal vote banks. For the past two years, Baghel has been hosting the National Tribal dance festival in which Soren is a permanent chief guest.