During the current monsoon session of Indian Parliament new rules are proposed to the present Forest Rights Act 2006. These changes run against interests of tribal people, conservation of forests and only serve large corporations. These amendments are being introduced to hand over community owned forests to private mining and pharmaceutical companies. The Union Environment ministry is introducing a bill to make amendments to the Forest Rights Act 2006. FRA was enacted in Parliament in 2006 by the then UPA government with active support from Left parties to protect the interests of tribal population. Indian forests are home to nearly 200 million people who are directly dependent on forests for primary livelihood, while around 100 million people live on land classified as forest. In short, Adivasis living in forests are the true custodians of biological resources.
In the new 2022 Forest Conservation Rules, environment ministry introduced the rule 6(b)(ii) that liberalizes diversion of forest land to private parties with no compliance with the Forest Rights Act 2006. The changes empower the district collector overriding the approval of Gram Sabhas and transfer the forest land to private parties after charging from them a nominal fee per hectar. The acquired parties will have unlimited proprietary rights to fell trees, displace wild life to develop the acquired land for uses that include underground mining and construction of buildings.
16/07/2022
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