Environment ministry strikes at root of tribal land rights bill

In a strongly worded reaction to the draft, the ministry says the bill will destroy India’s forest land and the failure on the development front should not be compensated by gifting away India’s forest heritage.

The letter, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, has been sent to the Tribal Affairs ministry, which had asked for an opinion from the environment ministry.

Environment Minister A. Raja said he had approved the letter. Tribal Affairs Minister A. Kyndiah said, ‘‘There is a strong view… Let us see how it is resolved.’’

The letter says, ‘‘The approach adopted in the proposed bill requiring denotification of vast tracts of forest lands and elimination of legal protection for the forest cover, will lead to irreparable ecological damage of immense proportion.’’

‘‘Failure on the developmental front should not be compensated by any mechanism which leads to the irreparable damage of our natural resource base. The draft bill, inter alia, proposes to compensate the failure on the developmental/welfare fronts by distributing natural resource base of the country,’’ the letter says.

The ministry concedes there is a need to recognise the traditional rights of tribals over their ancestral heritage but not the way envisaged in the bill.

The parts that the ministry finds objectionable in the draft bill include giving the power of settlements of claims to gram sabhas/sub-divisional committees/district committees. This, the ministry points out, will result in local vested interests taking over, fresh encroachments coming up and the situation going out of hand. The draft bill envisages distribution of 2.5 hectares of forest land to each nuclear family. This, the ministry says, would be against the goal of the National Forest Policy of 1988 that looks at getting one-third of the country under forest and tree cover.

Throwing political correctness out of the window, the ministry has pointed out that forests are a national resource and that it would not be ‘‘appropriate’’ to allocate large areas to 8.2 per cent of the population. The ministry also adds that the draft bill puts a question mark on the existence of national parks and sanctuaries where the current policy is of shifting habitation outside the protected areas. The Environment Ministry, Tribals Affairs ministry sources said, has been voicing its opinion frequently but this is the first official note.

The environment ministry has reiterated that there is no need for a separate bill and that there are provisions under the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 to take care of the requirements of tribals.