Conservationists blamed for delay in forest Act notification

The Forest Rights Act seems to be on the backburner for now. Weeks after the rules for the law were drafted, the Act is yet to be notified.

Forest rights groups say they have been betrayed by so-called conservationists and a pro-industry lobby in the government. The Act promises land to landless tribals.

The CPI(M) had made noises of protest early in September, saying that the rules were not being drafted. A letter was sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by party general secretary Prakash Karat on September 11, but now that the rules are ready and on the website, there seems to be silence.

Land rights groups have been restless on the issue and agitations have been launched in different parts of the country since last month with almost no support coming from any quarter.

The activists say that key Congress MPs have been mislead into believing that the handing out of land rights to tribals would mean simultaneous threat to wildlife. They accuse conservation groups of silently sabotaging the law.

A statement of Campaign for Survival and Dignity, which is spearheading agitations all over the country over the delay in the Act, said, "More than 500,000 hectares of forest were destroyed for various projects between 2001 and 2006 "" more than in the previous 20 years put together. All of these things would become much more difficult once the Forest Rights Act is in force and people have rights to their resources. This leads one to wonder whose cause these hardline conservationists are serving, especially when they so viciously attack forest dwelling communities while maintaining a deafening silence on these other trends. Is this conservation? Or is this becoming a convenient facade for entirely different forces?"

However, conservation enthusiasts like Centre for Science and Environment, whose Sunita Narain headed a task force on tiger, say that there is actually no conflict between conservation and tribal rights.

Chandrabhushan, Additional Director of Centre for Science and Environment, said, "At the end of the day it is about tribal rights. They are eight crore people and the law is not talking of extra land than what people are living on or working on. They are now termed illegal. Of course, what many conservationists want to achieve in terms of inviolate areas won't happen. But tribals cannot be subjected to injustice either."'

As for the lobby trying to grab land through the tiger route, he said, "There is a clause in the Act itself which says that villages can be removed from the core areas to protect wildlife and these forest lands cannot be diverted for any other purpose in future. So the misuse of this land is not possible."

The environment and forests ministry has already written to the finance ministry for a fund to relocate villages from core areas of tiger habitat in the country, he adds.

Many forest activists are concerned about the rules which have diluted the provisions in the Act. Surya Kumari of Centre for People's Forestry in Andhra Pradesh said, "The rules have definitely taken away much that was there in the Act."

The delay in the notification is seen to strategically benefit industrial projects as well as irrigation projects that require forest land.

The Vedanta project in Kalahandi involves acquisition of 700 hectares of forest land.

The Polavaram project will need submergence of 63,691 hectares out of which 3,705 hectares are forests in three states "" Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.