The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat. Yet Governments continue to sacrifice forests — the planet’s most effective carbon sink — at the altar of short-term political gain and development. In Telangana, the large-scale misuse of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) has led to rampant deforestation gutting vital ecosystems
Catastrophic flooding in central Texas on July 4 killed 88 people and 41 still remained unaccounted on the fifth day of rescue and relief has been the deadliest in hundred years of US history. The flooding begun when months’ worth of rain fell in matter of hours, causing Guadalupe river to rise by eight meters in 45 minutes. Back home in India, cloud bursts in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have caused landslides and flooding claiming nearly hundred lives in last one month. The flash floods due to incessant rains have also made life difficult in other parts of the country from north east to Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha etc.
Three labourers were buried alive under landslide debris, while carrying out mining operations in manganese mine in Baitarani Reserve Forests, in Odisha’s Keonjhar district. Why were no precautions against flooding and landslides taken in an operational mine during the rainy season? Business as usual is not going to work in the warming world. As against this, the countries of southern Europe like Spain, Portugal, France, etc are reeling under heat waves with maximum temperatures rising above mid-forties, an all-time high. Instances of human death are also reported from among the vulnerable population, who work outdoors for municipal cleaning and construction.
It seems countries have not taken note of such disastrous climatic consequences and continue to expand fossil fuel consumption and favour projects requiring sacrifice of natural tree/forest covers. Forests are the best and cheapest source of absorption of Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and the only practical way to prevent extreme climate events is to prevent deforestation and go for massive afforestation.
Let me reiterate a tale from Telangana, where continuous misuse of Forest Rights Act (FRA) has led to large-scale deforestation in the state’s notified forests. Forum for Good Governance, Hyderabad, comprising some retired All India Services officers, a High Court judge and a social activist, have expressed concern over the approval of claims over lakhs of acres of forest lands in July 2023 under the FRA, before the November 2023 Assembly polls.
In a letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) three months ago, the Forum has pointed out that the regularisation of 50,000 acres of forest lands by the Nizam Government in the 1940s and 2.41 lakh acres by the AP Government in the 1970s was done in undivided Andhra Pradesh before the promulgation of the FRA, 2006.
Ahead of the 2009 Parliamentary election, the state further approved claims over 3.31 lakh acres of forest land and rejected claims over 3.7 lakh acres. The clamour for clearing more forest land continued, as large-scale claims were approved by incumbent Governments before every election. After the bifurcation of states in 2014, the Forest Minister of Telangana in 2018 directed district-level forest officers not to evict any encroachment on forest land.
Minister’s direction opens floodgates for deforestation on forest land. Within two days, the Head of Forest Department (HoD) wrote to the state Government asking for confirmation of the decision; the state immediately clarified that there is no such policy decision.
However, in 2023, the State’s tribal department took up a special drive by deliberately omitting the documentary and scientific evidence (Satellite imagery) listed in FRA Rule 13(1) and relying only on the village elder’s statement. The action of the Tribal department in manipulating the form provided under rule 11(1)(a) has violated the Central statute. Despite objections from forest officers, several district level committees (DLCs) admitted the claims, but many times there were interdepartmental clashes resulting in delay.
Chief Minister on the floor of the Assembly on 12th February 2023 promised the distribution of 11.5 lakh acres of forest land (4 lakh acres for tribal and 7.5 lakh acres for other traditional forest dwellers). To facilitate the smooth sailing by DLCs, Telangana’s forest department HoD obtained facsimile signatures of district officers and shared them with respective DLCs for pasting on fabricated opinions of the Forest department on each case of the claim.
While the HoD in July 2018 referred the Minister’s instruction to the Government for confirmation, another HoD in February 2023 facilitated the state to approve the ineligible claims. What a contrast! The claim of tribal totalling 4 lakh acres in the state was approved by July 2023. Thanks to the way shown by HoD. The certificates were distributed by political bosses across the state before the Assembly election.
Though the approval of claims of other traditional forest dwellers over 7.5 lakh acres of forest land has been paused, the tree growth over these areas is already cleared, and the parcels are brought under plough. The forests have lost their carbon sequestration potential.
The story of misuse of the FRA is similar in many other states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, etc, and the latest state forest report attributed the loss of forest cover to the FRA among other factors.
However, after 150 forest rights activists objected to this, MoTA has questioned its sister ministry (MoEF & CC) and asked for proof of such attribution. The state forest reports are finalised based on the satellite imagery data, whereas DLCs have been approving claims based on the village elders’ oral evidence.
It is now MoTA’s turn to explain why satellite imagery data, which is more scientific than oral evidence, was overlooked.
Tree felling in Kancha Gachibowli, a 400-acre forested area near Hyderabad Central University was undertaken by the Telangana Government in April this year. The state intended to divert the area for real estate and was clearing the tree growth at quite a fast pace, to beat the university students’ protest. Finally, the Supreme Court had to step in and stop the felling.
The Court rejected the state’s argument that thousands of trees already cut in 100 acres were within the exempted category of species under the Telangana Water Land and Trees Act, 2002 and did not require any prior permission for cutting. Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court disputed the claim of the state and said that out of 1500 trees cut in the area, only 1399 trees were of the exempted category. Such blatant violation of the law of the land is taking place, and HoD is found to have been compromised.
The court further directed that the state should restore the 100 acres’ area where tree felling is already been done.
The direction was to compensate for the damage to the environment inflicted by the state of Telangana. Compensatory afforestation has been in vogue in the Forest Department’s system for a long time, and no forest land is diverted for
any non-forestry use without identifying the land for growing compensatory afforestation, as well as without recovering the cost of growing such plantations.
The court expects the state to plant 100 acres of area, where tree growth is already cleared with suitable native species. With moderate to scant rainfall in the Hyderabad region, the survival of the seedlings in barren areas would be quite challenging, and like any other compensatory plantation, this is also likely to fail, unless special provisions for protection and watering are provided.
Supreme Court in TN Godavarman case had already directed states and UTs to constitute Expert Committees to identify all wooded areas, which are non-notified forests, duly taking into account the dictionary meaning of the word ‘forests’, and states/UTs should treat all such areas as forests for Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. CEC has also said that Kancha Gachibowli has all the characteristics of forests.
One of the proposals of the state of Telangana is to convert the area into an ‘Eco-park’. It is a human-centric development activity and will not render the full potential ecological services it can provide. The entire area should be restored and managed as natural forests if we are to maximise its carbon sequestration potential.
(The writer is retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force), Karnataka.)