Explained: The government's new forest rules and Congress' reservation about them

The Congress on Sunday hit out the Central government for the recently issued Forest Conservation Rules 2022. Senior party leaders alleged that the Narendra Modi government is abdicating its responsibility towards protecting tribal rights and diluting the rules for the "ease of snatching forest land".

The environment ministry notified the Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 under the Forest (Conservation) Act on 28 June to replace the earlier rules, notified in 2003.

What are the new rules?

The Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA), 1980 was enacted to help conserve the country's forests.

According to The Indian Express, the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 brought the diversion of forest land for non-forestry purposes under the purview of the central government. Till then, the states were solely in charge of clearing projects and diverting forest land. The Forest Conservation Act, laid down the process by which forest diversion could be carried out for projects such as mines or dams.

It strictly restricts and regulates the de-reservation of forests or use of forest land for non-forest purposes without the prior approval of the Centre.

The Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006 recognises the rights of the forest-dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest-dwellers who depend on the forest for their livelihood and habitation.

The new rules state that compliance with the FRA is not required for the final approval for forest diversion. According to News Nine, this approval is sealed when a user hands over the Net Present Value (NPV), a mandatory one-time payment made to divert forestland for non-forest use.

The amount has been Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per hectare since 2009. It was hiked marginally in January this year from Rs 10.69 lakh to Rs 15.95 lakh per hectare.

The Forest Conservation Rules 2022 are to be placed for approval before the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for 30 working days in one or more sessions.

What has the Congress alleged?

The Congress has alleged that the new rules will dilute tribal rights and encourage ‘ease of snatching’ forest land.

‘Modi-Mitr’ Sarkar at its crony best!

For ‘ease of snatching’ forest land, BJP govt has come up with new FC Rules, 2022 diluting UPA's Forest Rights Act, 2006.

Congress stands strongly with our Adivasi brothers & sisters in their fight to protect Jal, Jungle and Zameen.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 10, 2022

Former environment minister and AICC general secretary communication Jairam Ramesh also tweeted a statement saying the new rules would disempower tribals and other forest dwellers.

If anything demonstrates the Modi Sarkar's TRUE intent on protecting & promoting interests of Adivasis, it is this decision, which will disempower crores of Adivasis & others living in forest areas:https://t.co/QQmjTgEIAa

Sharing INC’s statement on #AdivasiVirodhiNarendraModi pic.twitter.com/HRTOqpcnow

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 10, 2022

In the statement, the former minister said that the new rules reversed a 2009 safeguard whereby the Ministry of Environment and Forests could not grant any clearances for diversion of forest land unless rights of tribals and forest dwellers protected by the Forest Rights Act 2006 were first settled.

“In the new set of Rules the Government has allowed for forest rights to be settled after final approval for forest clearances has been granted by the Central Government. Obviously, this has been done in the name of ease of doing business for a chosen few. But it will end the ‘ease of living’ for the vast many.

“This destroys the very purpose of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and its meaningful use while considering proposals for diversion of forest land. Once forest clearance is granted, everything else becomes a mere formality and almost inevitably no claims will be recognised and settled. The state governments will be under even greater pressure from the Centre to accelerate the process of diversion of forest land,” Ramesh said.

The Congress has said to challenge the rules in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament starting 18 July. It argued that the new rules were brought without stakeholder consultation and without any discussion in the parliamentary standing committee on environment, which is chaired by Jairam Ramesh.

What has the Centre said?

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Sunday said the new forest conservation rules "do not dilute or infringe on" the provisions of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, trying to assuage concerns that the new rules allow cutting of forests without the consent of forest-dwellers.

The minister posted a note on his official Twitter handle, rebutting the Congress's allegation that the Narendra Modi government is abdicating its responsibility towards protecting tribal rights and diluting the rules for the "ease of snatching forest land".

Yadav said the new rules have been promulgated to streamline the approval process, introduce the concept of collective decision making and address the dynamic changes in the ecological values of trees and forests.

The new rules will allow parallel processing of the proposals and eliminate the redundant processes, he said.

"The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 have been promulgated solely to implement the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. No rule or provisions of any Act are being diluted. The process has been streamlined for reducing the timelines for arrival at the final decision," read the note posted by Yadav on Twitter.

"Processes and provisions envisaged in the Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 are not inconsistent with the other statutory laws including FRA compliance of which can also be ensured simultaneously by their respective nodal implementing agencies to reduce the time lag and cost involved," it said.

Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022, are reformative with an objective to streamline the process of approvals under the Act, and enable the parallel processing under other Acts and Rules including FRA, 2006. (1/2) https://t.co/6FXQ93eLWw pic.twitter.com/ME1T5bNvrm

— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) July 10, 2022

The minister said the states and Union territories can ensure compliance of the FRA "at any stage as the provisions of the FC Rules, 2022 do not bar the authorities to do so but in any case, it should be before handing over forest land to the user agency".

"Approval of the central government under the FCA is merely a prior approval which does not directly lead to non-forestry use or breaking of forest land.

It is actually the state government diversion order issued subsequently which authorises the use of forest land for intended purposes and hand over the land to the user agency," the note read.

The minister said the process envisaged in the FCA and the new rules is "more likely a parallel process", which is "not de-linked from the compliance of the FRA and does not inhibit the commencement of processes envisaged in other statutory laws including the FRA".

"Approvals granted by the central government under the FCA invariably stipulate compliance of the FRA before handing over the forest land to the user agency.

Approval to be considered under the new regime of Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 will also stipulate mandatory compliance of provisions of the FRA before state government/UT administration issues final diversion order for handing over the land to the user agency," he clarified.

With inputs from agencies

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