Modi govt’s dogged pursuit of a plan to open forests for commercial plantation began shortly after taking office, documents show. Though it faced pushback for hurting tribal rights and forests, the plan reached a fruition through the recent Forest (Conservation)Act amendment.

Tapasya & Nitin Sethi

The Modi government persisted in finding ways to open up forests for commercial plantations, beginning shortly after taking office and ultimately achieving it through recent amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Act that damages the rights of tribal people, reveals a trail of official documents.

Documents studied by The Collective show the Union government’s dogged efforts in opening up forests began to take shape as early as 2015, gained prominence during the making of a Green Credit SchemeThe scheme incentivizes environment-friendly activities. It allows entities, who do such activities, to earn credits. These credits can then be sold for money to another entity that is under legal obligation to do those environment-friendly actions. , and continued to evolve through subsequent iterations of the National Forest Policy drafts in 2016 and 2018 that focused on allowing private participation in plantations on forest land to increase the productivity of forests.

Despite having to shelve the forest policy drafts twice, after coming under fire from environmentalists for its pro-business language and objections from the tribal ministry for infringing on the rights of tribespeople and forest dwellers, the government kept tweaking regulations to deliver for businesses. Finally, the government achieved in opening up the forest land for private parties through the recent amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980.

The 2023 amendments leave ample room for the government to allow private businesses to enter India’s forestlands with ease and convert them into profit centers rather than biodiversity zones.

The efforts began in 2015.

India’s environmental laws aren’t primarily a code for crime and punishment but rather are meant to provide options for restitution. One such option prescribed by the forest conservation law is compensatory afforestation, which involves planting trees elsewhere to compensate for forest cut down. But it hasn’t been a success mainly because of the difficulty in finding land for afforestation, and neglect of saplings….

https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/forest-conservation-part-two