NEW DELHI: Wildlife activists led by the Bombay Natural History Society and the Wildlife Trust of India filed a PIL in the Supreme Court last week questioning the enactment of the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The FRA deals with the contentious issue of apportioning forest land to the tribal population living in these forests. The PIL highlights that while forests is a concurrent subject which comes under the Central government, distribution of land falls under the purview of state legislatures.

Wildlife activists, quoting "List 2 of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution (entry numbers 18, 35 and 45)", place "land" and "rights over land" as exclusively state subjects. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006, popularly referred to as FRA, was introduced to correct a "a historical injustice" committed against tribals by giving forest dwellers ownership of up to four hectares of forest

land with the onus of deciding the distribution of the forest land to be placed upon the village gram sabhas.

The FRA states that the forest dwellers are "integral to the survival and sustainability of forest ecosystems". The Indian experience, however, suggests that tribals are being used by vested interests to facilitate encroachment. By doing so, huge amounts of forest land have already been converted into "private property".

Almost 50 per cent of forests are now degraded, another 70 per cent of forests are no longer regenerating and another 55 per cent are prone to fire.

Wildlife activists feel the bill discriminates between non-forest landless citizens and those who are illegally occupying forest land. It also questions whether the gram sabha is a suitable body to decide upon the land distribution issue.

"Can the implementing of the RFR Act be delegated to authorities other than judicial, legal and administrative," the PIL asks. Quoting from the State of the Forest Report in 2003, the PIL highlights how 187 districts with sizeable tribal populations have lost 10,190 sq km of dense forest cover in two years.

The loss of dense forest cover in 16 tribal districts of Assam came down 26 per cent, from 7,233 to 5,302 sq km. In Madhya Pradesh, it came down 12 per cent, from 27,833 to 24,372 sq km; in Jharkhand it came down six per cent, from 7,826 to 7,368 sq km; in Andhra Pradesh, it came down four per cent, from 17,062 to 16,370 sq km.

Large amounts of this land have been encroached upon. In Assam, for example, the encroachment is over 25 per cent.

The PIL lists how 300 rivers originate from our forests, which meet 40 per cent of the energy needs of India. Quoting the National Forest Commission 2006, the PIL highlights how 80 per cent of rural India’s energy needs are being met by the forest. Over 25 per cent of fodder is obtained from forests.

The National Forest Commission highlights how free removal from forests is worth around Rs 40,000 crores, which meets the livelihood needs of 300 million people and feeds 270 million cattle.

Deforestation contributes an estimated 18 per cent of GHG emission globally as per the Stern Review and over 26 per cent in India, according to the latest statistics provided by FSI.

India again stands to earn carbon credits running into several billion dollars if it can avoid deforestation in the new, post-2012 revised Kyoto Protocol framework.

"By introducing a law which will add to, not reduce, deforestation, the government is precluding the opportunity of significantly benefiting the Indian economy with those carbon credits," said Ashok Kumar of the Wildlife Trust of India.





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