Misguided rules

Environment ministry framed guidelines which violate Forest Rights Act

Published on:

28 Feb 2011, 9:50 am

FRESH guidelines by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to identify inviolate areas for wildlife have bypassed the Forest Rights Act of 2006. They threaten the interests of forest dwellers.

Issued on February 7, they empower the Divisional Forest Officer and the Park Manager to arbitrarily identify areas in and around national parks and sanctuaries as Critical Wildlife Habitat (CWH) within 60 days. No involvement of local people is required in the identification process.

The Act promises to protect the traditional rights of forest dwellers over forest land and resources. While it has provisions to define areas of utmost wildlife importance in national parks and sanctuaries as CWH, it puts several stringent conditions to be fulfilled before forest-dwellers are moved out.

As per the Act, CWH must be determined on the basis of scientific data and after consultations with people in the region. A state-level panel must be formed for this with experts of the locality and representatives of the tribal affairs ministry. There is no mention of these provisions in the fresh rules.

Further, the Act states that the rights of people living in CWH can be taken away only if it is proved that their presence in the area is causing irreversible damage to wildlife and their coexistence is not possible. The fresh guidelines do not mention this. In violation of the Act, the guidelines extend inviolate areas to outside the existing protected areas.

While the Act defines CWH as part of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, the forest department can now identify such areas “in and around” the parks and sanctuaries.


	This is a ploy of the bureaucracy to retain control over forests. They have disregarded people’s rights over forests

	— Shankar Gopalakrishnan, Campaign for Survival and Dignity

environment ministry’s previous guidelines

How new rules violate the law

	New guidelines were introduced because the old ones were difficult to implement

Ministry’s defence

Old guidelines

How new rules violate the law
FRA says	Old guidelines said	New guidelines say
Decide Critical Wildlife Habitat (CWH) on basis of scientific and objective criteria	Decide on the basis of species area classified by Wildlife Institute of India and its potential to harbour viable population of the umbrella species	No criteria specified; decision left to concerned DFO “in consultation” with “local scientific institutions”
Expert committee to hold open consultations to decide CWH	The panel, that includes representatives of environment and tribal affairs ministries and gram sabha, will hold public hearings. gram sabha may object	No provision for open consultation during identification; role of expert committee is restricted to “sensitising” people about the relocation package
No relocation unless can be shown that human presence causing irreversible damage and coexistence not possible	Expert committee to collect data of man-animal conflict and assess the impact of human presence on wildlife	Completely ignored
Relocation must provide a secure livelihood	Forest department to provide Rs 10 lakh compensation or “rehabilitation”; no reference to providing a “secure livelihood”	Rs 10 lakh compensation or “rehabilitation” provided by the forest department; no reference to providing a secure livelihood’
Consent of gram sabha to be taken in writing	A resolution of the gram sabha certifying it was informed about the CWH proposal is required. It can send its objections to the proposals	Ignored; no procedure stated, implicitly refers to consent of individual families