The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has been accused of allocating over 1.86 lakh hectares of forest land for mining without the consent of gram sabhas as has been made mandatory under the Forest Rights Act.
In all, 1,82,389 hectares of forest land was diverted by the environment ministry between January 2008 and August 2011. The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) headed by T. Chatterjee, secretary of MoEF, has recommended diversion of four additional projects located in prime forest land in 2012. This includes 151,762 hectares for the Lara Super Thermal Power Plant in the Raigarh district of Chattisgarh and 766,393 hectares of forest land for the Talaipall Coal Mining Project in the Raigarh and Dharmajaigarh forest divisions of Chattisgarh.
Another two allocations include 139,00 hectares for Jindal Steel & Power in the Godda district of Jharkhand and 290,399 hectares of forest land for coal mining for D.B. Power in the Raigarh district of Chattisgarh. Minister of tribal affairs K.C. Deo is taking a grim view of these developments. “Ultimately it is the state governments that should give clearances. If any violation of the Forest Rights Act is brought to the notice of my ministry, we will take action,” said the minister. Earlier this year, the ministry of tribal affairs had sent both letters and guidelines to state governments warning that “large numbers of (forest dwellers) have been illegally displaced from forest land without respect for their rights.” Director-general of forests Dalip Kumar, who is also a member of the FAC, explained, “We are in the process of granting only conditional clearance. These companies have to go back and get clearance under the Forest Rights Act before they are granted a final clearance.”
The FAC had itself stated that “no project proposal will be considered complete (without meeting the) terms of the aforesaid enactment of 2006 Forest Rights Act.” But NGOs monitoring these allocations remain unconvinced. The NGO, Campaign for Survival and Dignity, believes these allocations are bigger than even the coal scam, especially since they affect “the most oppressed Indians — the forest dwellers.”
“FAC is meeting on Tuesday to continue to make further allocations,” a member of this NGO pointed out.