in this question draw maps, draw western ghats
News
Context is that “Van Sanrakshan evam Samvardhan Adhiniyam” VSESA
Terms
Legal
Note: forest conservation in the concurrent list
- Notified Forest - those forest lands which are recorded in any forest records.
it is notified under IFA, 1927 and other rules
- Reserved Forest has maximum protection - all activities are prohibited unless permitted
- Deemed Forest means forest those areas that fits the dictionary meaning of forest or that resemble a forest. they may not be notified but resemble forest
Geographical Aspect
- Forest Cover : Land Area where the canopy density of more than 10% and an area of 1 hectare of more
- Cover > 70% → Very Dense Forest
- Cover 40-70 → Moderate Dense Forest
- Cover 10 - 40 → Open Forest
- Less than 10% → Scrub
- tree cover is tree patches of less than 1 hectare outside the reported area
Note : forest area is legal definition and forest cover is geogrpahical term
Data
- these both include the total Green cover
- As per indian satte of forest report ISFR 2021, forest cover (tha is 10% or more canopy density )is 21.71% of the total geogrpahical
- tree cover is 2.91%
- maxium forest cover is in Madhya Pradesh
- as per the ISFR Brazil is having 59.4% of the geo area is under foret and in usa 33.9% and china has 23% under forest and indian total green cover is 24.61%
- as per the national forst policy its target is to make 33% of land area under forest cover
- Acc to miinstrry of env and forest, in the last 15 years, more than 3 lac hectares of forest land has been diverted
FCA, 1980
- Objectives : Conservation of Forest
- focused on key features
- state or authorities are restricted from making decisions related to de reservations of forest
- any kind of diversion requires prior permission from the central government
- it also talks about principles of compensatory afforestation, for any diversion it has to be compensated
- if there is any violation, there will be penalities incuding impriosnment
- as per environmentalist, this act helped in reudiucng deforestation
for example diverting forrst land for non forestry purposes for ex quarrying mining or other infrastructural restrictions
SC Cases
- SC in Godavarman Tirumulpad Case,
- SC Expanded the definition of forest to include even deemed forest (an area which first the dictionary meaning of forest)
- Each State Govt had to constitute a state expert committee (SEC)to identify such lands that are deemed forest
- Implications of this Judgement
- led to the complete stoppage of all activities related to forest
- Delay in Environmental Forest Clearance
- there was a delay wrt to forest clearance
- there was a fear that the law would extend to even private plantations
- people were in fear that forest land would also go, In India land to population ratio is also very skewed
- hindrance in remote area and border states, will lead to left wing extremeis
- it also affected any type of afforestation outside forest area, it affectted our, NDC Nationally Determined Contribution, whcih we submitted into paris agrement on UNFCCC. one of the key goals is to increase and create additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons by 2013. in this the most important aspect is increaing the foret cover, hich is imp for bio diersity protection and over all climatic aspects and it is also important for carbon sink or carbon sequestration and it is also imp for carbon sequestration
- allows creation of checkpost
the expanded defintion lead to these follwoing challneges. hence govt came up with FCA 2023
FCA Act, 2023
- Objectives: is now Augmentation
- Key Features
- Forest Area :
- Land Notified under forest called notified forest area and
- second land not in the First Category but notified as a forest on or after 1980
- Exemptions
- the act will not be applicable to a land-diverted before 1996
- no need of prior approcal for stretagic security or defence projects
- there is also an exemption to public utility projects in left-wing extremist affected areas it also permits certain activities
- permitted activities include setting up a zoo, safari, eco-friendly tourism
land within 100 km from the border areas in the international border, LOC with pakistana and LAC with China. the permission is exempted
China is using Xiankong villages is being countered by India by vibrant village program
Arguments
For View of Ministry of Environemnt and Forest
- this will increase forest cover, will promote oil palm cultivation, orchards and agroforestry and green cover
- forest cover will help in increasing carbon sink
- increaing carbin sink will help us to achieve our climate targets
- border security - we need to counter salami slicin and xianong villages by china, in border areas the priblen of out migration is counteretd by thiese exemptions and by provoding livelihood options
- concnecitiviyt and infrastructure in left wing extrmism areas
- livielhood oppuruntites ofr forest depenents is increased
project tiger and project elephant are very successful because of eco tourism and safari pptions proivided
Against
- narrowed efintion of forest agains sc jugement
- removal of prior approval callas for misuse in some cases
- fragil econsystems like himalayas will also be exmpeted iin the 100 km exmeption. sikkim will also come under exemotion including fragul eco system of himalayas and western ghats, they are bio diubersity rich but they are becoming loss
- consruction of zoos and eco tourism lead to more private conturction in estern ghats making WG a very fragile ecosystem, therfore katurniandan and madhav gatkal committe both recoomneded protections. increased incidence of land slides
Global Examples
- Balem Declaration
8 amazon countries held a meet to protect amazon forest, ACTO - amazon cooperation Treaty organization
non concrete outcome but a good thing was it emphasised on significance of indigenous knowledge in biodiversity conservation
- bonn challenge
india is party to bonn challenges, india is a sigantory to bonn challange it is for restoration of degarded and defrrsted land
Question
Parliament amended the forest conservation law takin western gnats as an example discuss the potential implications of this act