Lack of definition allows govt to mark forests or non-forests at its convenience.
Most people have read the definition of a “forest” at some point or another, but in India, its legal definition is still evolving within the four walls of the environment ministry.
According to the ministry, work is on to come up with an “ecologically sound and socially desirable definition of forests and forestry”. “We are still working on the definition of forest and will let you know once we finalise it,” said Brij Mohan Singh Rathore, joint secretary on the Green India Mission in the environment ministry.
Rathore, however, refused to comment on what is delaying the definition. According to the ministry’s official document, the Indian Forest Act, 1927, does not define the forest and the legal extent of forests depends upon the process of notifications.
“The term forest doesn’t have any definition in India. It is defined on the basis of the 1996 Supreme Court order which says anything should be forest if it meets one of the two definitions: either the dictionary definition or land recorded as forest on any government record,” said Shankar Gopalakrishnan from the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, an NGO working for forest dwellers.
According to Gopalakrishnan, it is a vague definition and provides huge scope for misuse of power by the authorities. “The interesting part is that it gives space to the government to use draconian powers at its convenience and mark an area as forest or non-forest,” he added.
The ministry’s document further said that the definition of forests require greater clarity given the concerns of climate change and to understand its impact .
The ministry some years ago had asked NGOs to suggest some definition of forests, but has rejected all the suggestions. “It is entangled between a couple of things,” said Yogesh Gokhale, a fellow with the forestry and biodiversity division, the Energy Research Institute (TERI). “I think it is better to have satellite imagery and fix a bar on the dimension of a forest and then calculate land under forest and non-forest area in the country.”
Even without a definition, the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change in February approved the country’s forestry mission - Green India Mission - to fight climate change.
The mission, one of the eight under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), projects an ambitious target of 10 million hectares of forest cover by 2020 at a cost of Rs.460 billion ($10 billion).
For the first time this year, India is also the global host of United Nations World Environment Day on June 5, and the theme is ‘Forests: Nature at Your Service’, which celebrates clean air, housing rich biodiversity, water - provided by the forests.
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