Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that new Forest Conservation Rules-2022 will end up “uprooting the rights of indigenous people”. In the letter to the PM dated December 1, Soren said that it was his duty to flag the “violation” of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) so that the voice of tribal community is not silenced in the guise of progress. Soren wrote that Jharkhand has 32 indigenous communities that exist in complete harmony with nature, practising a way of life where trees are worshipped and protected. The new rules have eliminated the earlier mandatory provision of obtaining Gram Sabha consent before utilising forest land for non-forestry purposes, he wrote. “To cut down trees without even an acquiescence from the people who look upon these trees as their ancestors is a painful attack on their sense of ownership. An estimated 200-million people across India depend on forests for their primary livelihood, and around 100-million people live on land classified as forests. These new rules will end up uprooting the rights of these people who have called the forests their home for generations but whose rights could not be recorded,” Soren said. He added that the traditional lands may get snatched away in the name of development, and the “simple, pure-hearted people” of our country will have no say when their homes get destroyed. The CM said that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) in 2009 clearly stated that no clearances for diversion of forest land under the Forest Conservation Act-1980 would even be considered by it prior to Stage-1 (in-principle) approval unless rights provided under FRA were first settled. In 2019, this provision was diluted to the extent that consent of Gram Sabha would be required prior to stage-2 clearance. “However, in the new notifications of 2022, this condition for the consent of the Gram Sabha has been shockingly completely obliterated. A situation has now been created where once forest clearance is granted, everything else becomes a mere formality. Almost inevitably, the state governments will be under even greater pressure from the Centre to accelerate the diversion of forest land,” Soren added.
