Ministries likely to split forests

Forests across the country may soon be divided between the Ministry of Environment and Forests MoEF and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.Alo...

Forests across the country may soon be divided between the Ministry of Environment and Forests MoEF and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Along with the Scheduled Tribes Recognition of Forest Rights Bill, another note is going to the Cabinet next week. The note will ask that the subject of 8216;8216;forest8217;8217;, as it relates to the rights of Scheduled Tribes on forest land, be transferred from the Environment to the Tribal Affairs Ministry.

A decision to this effect was taken at the meeting of a committee of secretaries yesterday.

According to the office memorandum sent on April 27 a copy of which is with The Indian Express, the subject of the meeting itself was the 8216;8216;transfer of the subject of 8216;forest8217;, in so far as it relates to the rights of Scheduled Tribes on forest land which has been historically with the Ministry of Environment, to the Tribal Ministry.8217;8217;

This effectively means that forests, including protected areas and national sanctuaries, some of which have a tribal population, will be divided between two ministries, which have their own divergent interests and objectives.

The draft Bill itself is already causing concern in environmental circles where it is felt that wildlife and conservation will be ultimately hit.

Meanwhile, at yesterday8217;s meeting, the MoEF, sources said, had objected to the whole idea, saying land can not be distributed in such a manner. It also pointed out that the Tribal Ministry has no infrastructure, unlike the Environment Ministry, to monitor the vast areas that are likely to come to it if the Cabinet gives its approval.

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But this step to transfer forest as a subject had to be taken before the Bill is introduced, sources said, because of the Government of India Allocation of Business Rules, 1961.

According to a note sent by the Tribal Affairs Ministry to the PMO on April 5, 2005, the matter was brought to its notice by the Ministry of Law Department of Legal Affairs, which had pointed out that as per the allocation rules, the Tribal Ministry could only frame a law for tribals and not on 8216;8216;rights on forest land8217;8217;.

The subject 8216;8216;forests8217;8217; under the rules is allocated to the Environment Ministry, which has objected to the draft Bill saying forests are its jurisdiction.

The PMO had been looking at revisiting the rules and had asked for comments from the Tribal Affairs Ministry. The ministry, in response, had sent a note dated April 5, 2005 to the PMO asking that 8216;8216;all matters relating to tribal-forests interface, including recognition of forest rights of the forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes8217;8217; be allocated to the Tribal Affairs Ministry under the Government of India Allocation of Business Rules. But The backgrounder note says: 8216;8216;It may be clarified that the object of the Bill is not to vitiate the mandate of the settlement of rights process of the Moef. It only proposes to correct a historical wrong of non-recognition of forest rights of tribal affairs.8217;8217;

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The meeting was attended among others by Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi, Ministry of Law and Justice Department of Legal Affairs Secretary R.L. Meena, Tribal Affairs Secretary Jyoti Rao, Environment Secretary Dr Prodipto Ghosh and DG, Forests, Joshi.

The MoEF had questioned the very necessity of the draft Bill. In a strongly worded reaction, the ministry had said that it will destroy India8217;s forest land, and failure on the development front should not be compensated by gifting away the country8217;s forest heritage.