Violation of law in land allotted to tribals, claims study on Forest Rights Act

MEENA MENON

• There is a trend of putting barren forest land to agriculture between 2005 and 2008
• People cleared forest cover and started cultivation after FRs have been recognised

Sloppy implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) has resulted in large tracts of forests being cut down and claimed as cultivated land in Maharashtra, according to a study. Data shows that in Jalgaon district alone, more than 79 per cent claims over cultivated forest land were apparently on ineligible lands and about 25 per cent had forest cover. In Thane, adjacent to Mumbai with a high land value, about 12 per cent of the land allotted to tribal people was ineligible according to the eligibility criteria under FRA.

Maharashtra government had, a few years ago, relaxed the measurement for land claimed by tribal people and this has caused discrepancies in settling claims under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 (FRA). A study done by a private company in 2012, at the behest of the State Forest Department, used a database from the Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI), Pune, and the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad. Satellite maps and GPS data were collated to examine changes after 2005 in tree cover, vegetation and land-use in forest land under forest rights (FR) claims and those which have recognized rights of cultivation.

TRTI has the data of 1,89,400 forest plots under Forest Rights (FR) claims, which are measured using GPS and uploaded on its website. Each land under claim has a unique 13 digit code comprising alpha numerical identification for district, tehsil, village and initials of the claimant. Of the 3, 44,330 claims received in Maharashtra, 2, 34,242 claims were rejected, according to latest data from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs website. Only 1, 05,930 claims have been approved, of which 99,368 titles were distributed for about 2, 50,000 hectares . Activists and tribal people have been contesting the delay in allotting rights and the high rejection of claims.

However, Thane district, with one of the highest number of claims in the State, did not provide details of the 13 digit-code for all claimants, and in fact, cleared cases without GPS measurement, the study says. The government blames the high rate of false claimants for the rejections. Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Nasik, Raigad, Gondia and Bhandara districts also provided little data. Overall, data only for 40,428 approved cases was made available for the study from 19 districts covering 1705 villages.

In 2,433 cases, out of a total of 36,640 cases analysed, there was a road/ river/nallah within the plot. The highest number of such cases is in Dhule and Nandurbar districts. As seen on 2005-06 satellite images, about 15 per cent approved cases are on lands having forest or no agriculture.

Data using Cartosat-1 satellite images of 2005-06 and 2007-08, shows that in 789 cases out of 35, 044 approved FR cases, land-use changed between the years 2005-06 to 2007-08. Large numbers of such cases with land-use change are in Jalgaon, Nandurbar, and Dhule. Out of 539 FR cases from Jalgaon district, 321 cases are from three villages of Chopda Taluka — Umarti (118), Satrasen (113) and Melane (90).

The data reveals that there was a huge trend of putting barren forest land to agriculture between 2005 and 2008 to stake claims. About 37 per cent of barren area was converted into agriculture and 33 per cent was converted from forest cover to agriculture. Jalgaon has the highest area so far of forested areas and barren forest land converted to agriculture. An analysis of 5,373 FR cases on satellite images of 2007-08 shows that in these 789 approved FR cases, land-use change occurred after 2005. The study says this implies that people first claimed rights of cultivation, irrespective of the fact whether it was under cultivation on December 13, 2005 (as mandated by FRA) or not and later that forest land was cleared for cultivation. Though the percentage of land-use change detected is less than one per cent in terms of total area, about 641 hectares forest land appears to have been converted from barren land to agriculture and about 580 hectares of forests to agriculture.

In a separate set of data, since satellite images of 2011-12 were available for six districts, only 26,807 finalized FR cases were analyzed, covering 45,034 hectares in Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar, Nashik, Thane, and Gadchiroli districts. It was found that 39,996 (89 per cent) hectares is under cultivation within the approved plots in 2011-12 which is a four per cent increase from 2007-08, Forest/tree cover and barren land has reduced from 910 to 433 hectares and 5476 to 4605 hectares respectively between 2007-08 and 2011-12. This means that people have cleared forest cover and started cultivation after FRs have been recognized on these lands, the study points out.

In these six districts, at least 5037.88 hectares of ineligible forest land on which Forest Rights have been recognized is still not converted into cultivation as per 2011-12 satellite images.

In FR cases’ analysis on Cartosat-1 satellite images of 2007-08 and 2011-12, it has been observed that in 827 cases out of 26, 807 finally recognized FR cases, land-use changed between 2007-08 to 2011-12.

The percentage of land-use changes in finally recognised FR cases shows an increase in 2011-12 (3.1 per cent) compared to 2007-08 (2.3 per cent). In an analysis of claims applied for but not recognised, it increased from 12.4 per cent to 18.3 per cent.

Land use changes violate the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and data from all districts needs to be revisited for verification of claims and ensuring forests are not cut down, said a forest official.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/violation-of-law-in-land-allotted-to-tribals-claims-study-on-forest-rights-act/article4549144.ece

Panel backs NHAI: ‘MoEF can’t insist on Forest Act’

Things may have come to a boil between the National Highways Authority of India and the Ministry of Environment and Forests over green clearances to road projects last week with the former going to court in protest, but they have been simmering for long enough. The NHAI has for long been demanding exemption from the Forest Rights Act for its road projects and now derives strength from the recent recommendations made by a Committee of Secretaries on the issue.

Chaired by the Law Secretary, this committee — specifically examining the NHAI’s demand vis-a-vis the ministry’s contentions — gave an opinion in favour of the NHAI. The committee has opined that the FRA may not be insisted upon as far as road projects are concerned. Sources said the MoEF wrote to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for its views on the committee’s opinion. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, in turn, passed the buck to the MoEF arguing that since the guidelines to FRA were issues by the latter, any changes will have to be effected by the same ministry.

The FRA to which the MoEF issued guidelines in 2009 require public hearings and consent of related gram sabhas before forest clearance for a project can be given. The process, a time consuming one, is said to delay projects. Under pressure over delays, the MoEF is of a view that forest clearance should not be delinked from environmental clearance.

The MoEF argues that it has already been sympathetic to the NHAI’s demands by relaxing its guidelines for linear projects, facilitating phased processing of these proposals, provided feasible alternate alignments are submitted for stretches in forest areas.

The Forest Ministry contends that its notifications, dated March 2012 and September 2011, on re-diversion of forest land for non forest purposes facilitated linear projects.

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has been at loggerheads with the MoEF over alleged delays in granting of clearance and blames it for slow progress in projects worth over Rs 2,000 crore. They had even sought the PMO’s intervention to expedite linear projects like roads, railway tracks and transmission lines awaiting green clearances.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Panel-backs-NHAI---MoEF-can-t-insist-on-Forest-Act-/1059309/0

PMO wants tribal's consent in giving forests for projects diluted

Nitin Sethi, TNN

NEW DELHI: The PMO has asked the environment and tribal affairs ministry to severely dilute the need for consent from tribals under the Forest Rights Act for diverting forests to projects.

The decision effectively rolls back UPA's flagship programme for tribals "the Forest Rights Act" and also runs contrary to the position taken by the government before the Supreme Court recently in the high profile Vedanta case. In the case, the government had said tribal forests cannot be diverted for projects at all.

At the moment, forest areas cannot be handed over to industry without the rights of tribals being settled in the impacted area and an explicit consent being secured from the affected gram sabha (village councils) after that.

Though this requirement has not been followed strictly, the industry as well as infrastructure ministries have been up in arms against it, repeatedly asking for doing away with the regulations.

Now, the PMO has asked the environment ministry, which gives forest clearances, and the tribal affairs ministry, the nodal point for the FRA, to dilute the regulations.

It has said that in cases where public consultations have occurred for other clearances, the consent of tribals should be done away with. This would make the affected tribals' consent irrelevant in most cases because public hearings are mandatory for almost all projects that undergo environment clearances. But the government does not review tribal rights under the FRA during assessing cases for environment clearances.

In the case of linear projects, the PMO has said just a certificate from the state government stating that processes under FRA have been completed would be adequate. This runs contrary to the position the UPA had taken in the Vedanta mining case in Odisha, a case that it is now being contested in the Supreme Court.

The PMO has said that in cases where there is significant impact on lives and livelihoods "the phrase left undefined" the gram sabha should be required to recommend the project. This again would remain contingent on whether public hearings have been held for environmental clearance or not.

In any other case, the PMO has asked the ministries to do away with the need for consent of the impacted tribals.

The PMO had given a December 31 deadline to the ministries to enact the changes. The ministries are yet to respond to the call.

Sources said the Forest Rights Act was UPA's flagship scheme in its first tenure with Congress scion Rahul Gandhi even riding on it to create a pro-tribal image when Vedanta's bauxite mining project was cancelled.

In the Vedanta case particularly, the environment ministry had noted violations of FRA and rights of tribals besides other violations to stop the project. It had refused to accept mere assurances from the Odisha government that FRA had been followed in the impacted area. But the PMO has now asked that the central government do a turnaround and ask the state governments to provide assurances in some cases but to do away with even that in many.

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-11/india/36278625_1_tribal-affairs-ministry-environment-clearances-environmental-clearance