Responding to the increasing threat of Naxal menace in central India, minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh is pushing for an early amendment of the Indian Forest Act 1927 to allow greater democratisation of forest management.
“Over 250 million people depend on forests for their livelihood and a major amendment of the IFA will prevent the harassment of tribals by local forest officials,” he stated in a joint press conference organised by the ministry for environment and forests (MoEF) and the ministry of tribal affairs.
He hoped to introduce these amendments in the Budget Session of Parliament after receiving a report of the National Committee on Forest Rights Act (FRA) headed by Dr N.C. Saxena.
“We are bringing about amendments to the Indian Forest Act in order to ensure that these large numbers of cases are not foisted on tribal communities people who are going into forest daily and picking up their daily requirements.
“In Naxal-affected areas, a large number of cases are registered against the tribals and so we are amending the Forest Act,” the minister said. Mr Ramesh said the UPA’s flagship Forest Rights Act, 2006 was the first systematic attempt by the government to give a democratic structure to forest management. But this contentious change in legislation will see the forest cadre being forced to adopt a more “advisory role” rather than regarded as guardians of the forest.
Given the importance the government is attaching to the implementation of the FRA, Mr Saxena, also a member of the National Advisory Council, headed by Sonia Gandhi, admitted that the NAC was also looking into the implementation of the FRA and were close to finalising a series of recommendations on how best to implement it.
Keeping this UPA flagship legislation in mind, the MoeF minister, while releasing the report of the committee, insisted that other far reaching consequences of this amendment would be to allow the establishment of village forests and the transfer of the management of these forests to the villagers themselves.