Stormy scenes are expected in the Lok Sabha on the last day of the monsoon session during the debate on the Wildlife (Protection) Act Amendment Bill.After sitting on the Wildlife (Protection) Act Amendment Bill since August 2, when the Rajya Sabha finally passed it on August 22, the House actually cleared what many are now dubbing as a “proxy tribal bill”. Meant to set up a national Tiger Conservation Authority (TCA) with constitutional power, the wildlife Bill was almost overnight modified with 13 radical clauses to placate the tribal lobby.The most crucial of these additions says that no direction of the TCA “shall interfere or affect the rights of local people particularly the Scheduled Tribes”. As the pending tribal Bill seeks to redefine these rights,the TCA’s authority is likely to depend on the final shape of the tribal Bill. Consider these:• The core areas are to be “kept as inviolate without affecting the rights of the Scheduled Tribes and such other forest dwellers”.• “Save for voluntary relocation”,”no Scheduled Tribes or other forest dwellers shall be resettled or have their rights adversely affected for the purpose of creating inviolate areas for tiger conservation”.• There are certain provisions for relocation from areas where human habitation causes “irreversible damage” or where “options of co-existence are not available”. But the power to determine such cases is with the Gram Sabhas and designated local expert panels and not with the TCA.• The right to redraw the core-buffer boundary is also with the Gram Sabhas and designated local expert panels.Between August 11, when the Bill was quietly dropped from the Rajya Sabha’s list of business, and August 17 when it was listed again, the bill suffered crippling changes during a political game of bargain. Consider the sequence of events:• Tired of waiting with the Bill since May,top MoEF officials sought private meeting with a Left Rajya Sabha member, a staunch opponent of the wildlife bill,to seek a solution in the first week of August.This MP and other tribal experts placed their list of demands but MoEF top brass rejected those as “disabling”.• On August 11, desperate MoEF officials resumed the bargain with the MP. By the next day, a primary compromise formula was ready. Key clauses required modification and the TCA was to be expanded to a bulky 23-member body to accommodate representatives from different ministries and tribal activists.• On August 13, Minister A Raja and other senior officials agreed to water down the bill but MoEF secretary Prodipto Ghosh refused to budge.• On August 13, Union Law Ministry’s clearance was sought to the bill. Once approved, the MoEF decided to go ahead with the “amendments” even though secretary Ghosh refused to sign. Within hours, the modified Bill was ready and listed on the next working day August 17.• Tabled on August 18, the Bill waited for the Left MP who okayed it on August 21. The Rajya Sabha passed it on August 22.“Yes, certain compromises could not be helped. I think a few clauses are being misinterpreted but we have drafted it within the frameworks of Supreme Court rulings and existing legal provisions. One must realise this is the best we could get,” a senior MoEF official said.
