NGOs Seek Changes in Forest Bill for Its Bureaucratic Overtones

More than 1,500 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) all over the country have called for drastic changes in the draft Forest Bill prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to replace the Indian Forest Act, 1927. The request is with a view to involve people at the grassroots in the protection and preservation of forests.

The amended draft Forest Bill, prepared by the National Campaign Committee for People’s Resources, was presented to the Minister for Environment and Forests in the last week of August by committee chairman Walter Fernandes of the Indian Social Institute.

The NGOs found that the draft Bill circulated by the Ministry not only retained all the objectionable and archaic sections of the present Act, but also proposed to add many more sections and clauses, thus giving greater power to the forest bureaucracy and negating the rights of the people.

They further felt that the draft did not follow the resolution on the National Forest Policy, 1988, in letter and spirit. The National Forest Policy resolution called for “meeting the basic needs of the people, especially, fuel wood, fodder and small timber for the rural and tribal people and maintaining the intrinsic relationship between forests and the tribals and other poor people living in and around the forests by protecting their customary rights and concessions on the forests.”

It was also felt that the draft will not be able to achieve the main objective of the National Forest Policy of “creating a massive people’s movement with the involvement of women for achieving these objectives and to minimise pressure on existing forests.”

The official draft, the NGO organisations found, also did not take into consideration the important policy initiative of Joint Forest Management (JFM) as reflected in the circular issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in June, 1990.

The Bill, on the other hand, has provisions that will act as disincentives to form village forests as a modified form of JFM, for, it empowers the State governments to take back the management of village forests from the local body.

The NGOs submitting the amended bill reminded that the nation is facing an acute crisis on the forest front. The tree cover is fast declining, creating numerous ecological problems in addition to creating hardships to adivasis and other communities dwelling in forests. “What is needed is a very radical and innovative forest legislation that can generate a mass movement for forest development and preservation,” they added.

The Department of Environment and Forests alone cannot generate such a people’s movement, especially if it wants to have a monopoly in decision-making and monitoring, the NGOs felt.

The Department of Forests will have to accept a new role of a friend, philosopher and guide with its technical expertise and not that of master who takes all the decisions.

People’s movements, the NGOs stressed, are generated by the people and never by a government department. The last statement in the national policy resolution that “forests are national asset to be protected and enhanced for the well-being of the people and the nation” must be fully accepted, the NGOs felt.

The NGOs found that the Bill did not take into account the revolutionary spirit of the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the constitution of India that promises to usher in a new era of decentralisation of power in India. The main purpose of the amendments suggested is to emphasise on the supremacy of people in governance.

The NGOs suggested that the spirit must form the basis for the management of forests. Only people can preserve and develop their natural resources and they must be encouraged to do by assigning rights and duties, they added.

The official Bill, on the other hand, centralises decision-making in all matters relating to forests. The Central Government is taking over even the powers of the various States to make rules according to local needs and circumstances. Greater centralisation will mean that local organisations and movements will no longer be able to pressurise or bargain with the State Governments, the NGOs pointed out.

In respect of reserve and protected forests, the NGOs felt that the procedures have been made even more complicated and arbitrary and no mention has been made of the rights of the people who settled in the forests long ago. q

Let The School Kids Do It
In 1972 United Nations Summit on environment a sad metaphor was coined. “Man is eating the seed of corn”. The two key reasons for environment degradation in the world are population and affluence. Due to increasing population and increasing aspiration of the affluent the forests are depleting at the rate of 1.5 acres per second world-wide. In order to combat this problem cost effective simple human intervention is necessary. The suggestions are as follows:
a)	Each school must earmark a small place for setting up a nursery.
b)	The nursery should contain plants of economic ornamental and genetic value which will be symbolic of the necessity to have forest with diversity as against the modern practice of monoculture which has inherent dangers of depleting the nutrients from the soil and making the same barren.
c)	The schools can encourage the children to collect seeds can encourage the children to collect seeds of various fruits and plants like Papaya, drumsticks, peepal, neem etc. which can be nurtured in the nurseries for transplanting in the cities where they are located. Our cities have very poor green cover.
Our Association has made a small step in starting a seed bank this year and we have distributed papaya and amaltash seeds to approximately 200 people with the idea of Seeding Many minds. If such steps are taken at political level it will be a mass movement them the task of handling environment degradation will be made easier. There is a sage adage “Micro action, leads to macro action”. Seeds are symbolic of the above saying. N. Khatri, Secretary, Basant Lok Jagriti Association, New Delhi - 110 057