Forest Rights Act Being Stalled Internally, Forest Destruction
Accelerating
Dear all,
The Forest Rights Act is being indefinitely stalled,
it seems from reports. These reports say that a few young
Congress
leaders, probably including Rahul Gandhi, have been misguided into
believing that the Act will destroy wildlife. Their opposition
has led
to further sabotage and the delay in the notification of the Act,
ignoring the rights of the crores of people whose lives are being held
hostage. Meanwhile, evictions continue: as in Kumbalgarh in
Rajasthan,
where three days ago the Forest Department tried to evict pre-1970
cultivators, leaving several people injured and one in jail. Even
existing law says that the land is theirs.
For the handful of hardline conservationists who have created
this situation, no doubt this is a desired outcome. Better to
ignore
the transparent procedures for wildlife conservation contained in the
Act. Better to act as though the oppression of crores of people
in
forests does not exist. Better to malign those of their
colleagues who
believe that conservation and justice must go together. Better to act
as though "inviolate areas" means only inviolate for local communities
- while being completely open to tourism and resort construction.
Are we supposed to believe these people's bona fides any
longer? The Act provides a route for creating inviolate areas
which
has been supported by environmentalists. Yet this too is to be
ignored. Instead, these people are persuading Mr. Gandhi and
others to
support the sham tiger conservation plan being pushed by the Ministry
of Environment and Forests, which essentially aims to allocate huge
sums of money with no accountability while generating more
conflict.
Until this plan is implemented, they wish to stall the Forest Rights
Act entirely.
Meanwhile, Vedanta in Orissa is on the verge of wiping out a
sacred forest and a whole community, the Polavaram dam is going to
destroy thousands of hectares of forest, and the inhuman salwa judum
campaign in Chhatisgarh is opening huge areas to mining. Hardly
any of
those now writing against the Forest Rights Act has ever written about
these issues, which are being fought by people on the ground.
More
than 5,00,000 hectares of forest were destroyed for such projects
between 2001 and 2006 - more than in the previous twenty years put
together.
All
of these things would also become much more difficult once the Forest
Rights Act is in force and people have rights to their resources.
THis
leads one to wonder whose cause these hardline conservationists are
serving, especially when they so viciously attack forest dwelling
communities while maintaining a deafening silence on these other
trends. Is this conservation? Or is this becoming a
convenient facade
for entirely different forces?
Campaign for Survival and Dignity
October 14, 2007