Over 3 lakh acres of "waste" land, which was supposed to go green with the efforts of the forest department, will now lose any semblance of protection. This is because of the amendment of the Forest Conservation Act cleared by the Rajya Sabha last week.
The revenue department had given the waste land (termed "C and D Class" land) across Karnataka to the forest department for taking up afforestation and creating a land bank. The forest department returned about 15 lakh acres but invested efforts to turn 3.2 lakh acres into green space.
"Crores of rupees have been spent and thousands of work days invested on plantation activities. Though the government gave it on the condition that the land can't be notified as forest, a Supreme Court order had helped in protecting such lands. The amendment hands it on a platter for commercial exploitation," an official said.
In the Godavarman Thirumulpad case, the apex court ruled in 1996, "The word 'forest' must be understood according to its dictionary meaning. This description covers all statutorily recognised forests, whether designated as reserved, protected, or otherwise for the purpose of section 2(i) of the Forest Conservation Act."
Till now, diverting such forests for non-forest or commercial activities was difficult due to the stringent rules under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. However, the amendment excludes lands recorded as forest before 1980 but not notified, thereby limiting the ambit of the law to protected areas.
Deemed forest
As reported by DH earlier, the amendment will also affect the status of the 10 lakh acres of deemed forest in the state. The original extent of the deemed forest was identified in 2014 at 24.58 lakh acres. Some errors and pressure from different groups brought it down to 10 lakh acres.
Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests B K Singh said there was no seriousness about protecting C and D class land as no survey was conducted.
"Most of the C and D class land given to the forest department was either rocky terrains with no scope for plantation or areas under encroachment. The department returned most of it to the government. On the other hand, plantation activities didn't really succeed in many areas. Efforts should be made to sustain whatever can be saved," he said.