The Central government notified Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill 2023 exempts certain forest lands from the Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA) 1980, thus making it easier to strip these lands of forests and divert it for non-forest purposes. With the greens and legal experts expressing strong dissatisfaction to the amendment, argue that excluding certain tracts of forests can cause devastation to the State’s forest resources in the absence of proper checks and balances, The Goan tries to find out the implications the amendment could have on Goa’s lush green cover.
On August 14, the Central government notified the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill 2023, which exempts certain forest lands from the Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA) 1980, thus making it easier to strip these lands of forests and divert it for non-forest purposes. Roughly, this will impact atleast 46 per cent of Goa’s forest cover. This is because these forests – nearly 1,019.21 square kilometres of forest cover – lie outside the recorded forest area (RFA) and will lose protection under the new amendment.
The Amendment Bill 2023 was introduced in the Lok Sabha in March. Thereafter, it was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) comprising 32 members from both Houses of Parliament and across party lines, who endorsed the amendments in June. In July, the Bill was passed by the Parliament while on August 14, the Union Ministry for Law and Justice issued notification.
What does the new amendment change?
Under the Forest Conservation Act 1980 (FCA), all natural forests officially recorded as “forests” in government records were protected. The new amendment exempts land not recorded as “forest” in government records as on or October 25, 1980.
With the latest amendments, the FCA will apply only to lands notified as a forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, or those that have been officially recorded as a forest on or after October 25, 1980. It however, claims that it clarifies “the scope of applicability of the Act upon various lands so as to remove ambiguities and bring clarity”.
The amendment allows some non-forest activities on forest lands like running zoos and eco-tourism facilities. The amendments also exempt border lands from the obligation to seek permissions to clear forests in order to construct “strategic linear projects of national importance”.
As per the amendments, the Central government has got powers to issue directions to any authority under itself, or the State government or any organisation, entity or body recognised by the Centre or State for implementation of the Act.
Forest cover & implications of the amendment
As per the latest India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021, Goa’s forest cover is 2,244.21 sq km – which is 60.62 per cent of the State’s geographical area. Of this, the total recorded forest area is only 1,225 sq kms, which is 54 per cent of the total forest cover – thus keeping balance forest area open for diversion for non-forest purposes as per the new amendment.
“The amendment does not give any blanket permission for the diversion of forest land but only allows minor exemptions by taking care of all conservation concerns, including compensating the affected trees,” a senior forest official explained.
The data further reveals that the total tree cover of Goa is 244 sq km that is only 6.59 per cent of the total geographical area of the State.
As such, the total green cover of the State (forest cover plus tree cover) stands at 2,488.21 sq kms – thus indicating that 67.21 per cent of the State’s geographical area is green.
A senior forest official pointed out that the Section 2 of the Amendment states that the Central government may exempt clearance for ‘any other purposes, which the Central Government may, by order, specify.’ “What does this mean? This means opening the door to a whole host of ancillary activities on forest land that will no longer require clearances,” the official said.
According to the official, the amendment opens up all land that hasn’t been officially classified as ‘forests’ to commercial activity. “In Goa, we have a large portion of forest cover, which is not officially classified as government forest land,” officials said.
Goa has lost 245.96 sq kms or 2,459.66 ha of forest land in last two decades
The concern raised by the experts to the amendments – opening up tracks of forest land for diversion – is critical considering that Goa has lost over 249.96 sq kms of forest land for non-forestry projects like mining, roads, water pipeline, double tracking of railway line and other infrastructure purposes in over two decades. Such a huge diversion was despite the FCA 1980, which provides for the conservation of forests across the country in several ways including restricting the use of forests for non-forest purposes (including cultivation).
The data further reveals that of the total 245.96 sq kms, almost 11 per cent, that is 28.05 sq kms of the land, was diverted in the last five years from 2019-23.
Nearly 40 per cent of the diverted land was used for iron ore mining and dumping purposes while the other 60 per cent was towards government infrastructure projects. Goa lost a large chunk of its forest land in the early 90’s.
According to the environmental experts, the protected biodiversity like mangroves, and other hotspots – which could no longer be considered ‘forest’ will be potentially available for diversion, exploitation and to be sold out without any regulatory oversight. In last five years, Goa saw maximum diversion in 2022, wherein authorities granted permission to divert 14.524 sq km of land for four projects including south west railway double tracking and Approach Surface Area to Manohar International Airport at Mopa.
What the Goa Forest Department says
A senior official explains that the bill provides that the 1980 Act shall cover the land that has been declared or notified as a forest in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Forest Act 1927 or under any other law. “It proposes that the FCA will cover the land that has been recorded as forest in the government records such as the records maintained by Revenue department, Forest department or any other authority of the State,” official said adding ‘now every forest area is categorised for its inclusion in FCA’.
It is interesting to note here that the amendment has exempted certain categories of land from the application of the FCA like the land situated alongside a rail line or a public road maintained by the government, which provides access to a habitation or to a rail and road side amenity up to a maximum size of 0.10 ha. “These amendments are not going to have any ramification for Goa forest cover. All the recorded government forest including private forest will continue to get the protection under FCA like earlier,” the official explained.
