Tweaks in Forest Act to give more immunity for gun use

Will Turn Quarter Of Country’s Land Area Into A Police State: Activists


New Delhi:

The Centre’s first draft on comprehensive amendments to the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927, sent to states early this month for comments, has drawn flak from experts and forest rights activists who felt that giving more powers, including higher immunity for use of firearms, to forest officers can easily be misused.


Experts believe that though certain provisions in the 123-page draft are relevant for promoting conservation and in bringing the law in sync with India’s current international commitment, excessive powers to the forest bureaucracy would turn the country’s forests into a police state.

“The proposed amendments will directly clash with decentralised governance mechanism enacted in the 2006 Forest Rights Act (FRA). These legal contradictions and their implications must be debated before any steps are taken to accept these amendments,” said Kanchi Kohli, a legal researcher at Centre for Policy Research (CPR). Citing an example, she noted the exclusion of ‘village forests’ from the FRA purview can create huge governance confusions on the ground.

The draft, with expanded definition of ‘forest’ and introducing a new category of ‘production forest’, also makes stronger provisions for immunity to forest officials where state won’t be permitted to grant prosecution sanction without an inquiry. “These amendments will turn India's forests — almost a quarter of India’s land area — into a police state where the interests of forest bureaucrats and private companies will reign,” said Shankar Gopalakrishnan, Uttarakhand-based forest and tribal rights activist. The ‘production forest’ will be forests with specific objectives for production of timber, pulp, pulpwood, firewood, non-timber forest produce, medicinal plants or any forest species to increase production for a specific period.

Referring to India’s current dependence on import to the tune of Rs 46,000 crore every year to meet its demand for wood, Ajay Kumar Saxena of the Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF) said, “The idea of creating ‘production forests’ is catching imagination of stakeholders while generating apprehensions also. The states are expected to submit their comments and suggestions to the environment ministry by June 7.