A forest policy of commercialisation

The shenanigans of the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Environment and Forests on the draft national forest policy stirs up an air of suspicion on the government's real motive irrespective of the lofty goals written in the document. The draft was prepared by the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, which was entrusted with the task by the ministry almost two years ago. The draft policy has a strong focus on the commercialisation of forests, encouraging the timber business and proposing a new cess. As the public criticism of the policy begins, the Director General of Forests came out in the open claiming it was only a study by the IIFM and a not the policy. The top forest official claimed the ministry has an elaborate procedure for preparing the draft policy document taking into account inputs from all stakeholders, state governments, think tanks and public consultation, which was not followed by the IIFM. The Institute, on the other hand, claims every procedure was followed.

The contradiction between the ministry and its subordinate institute raises eyebrows among those who care for environment. Is it a ploy by the government to bid more time for sugar-coating the industry-friendly ideas suggested in the document? Does the government really want to protect the forest or interested only in timber business and creating green jobs? The document talks about promoting agro and farm-forestry with incentives, but doesn’t answer why taxpayer’s money would be put to use for the benefits of private entities. The draft proposes a new administrative and legal regime and suggests the need to change the existing laws, if required, which may help bureaucrats and industry retain control over forest land ignoring the sons of the soil. The policy makes no reference to the Forest Rights Act that empowers the tribal communities and give them legal right on the minor forest produce. Even after suggesting such serious policy overhauling, the draft gives only 15 days time to people to comment. Such a hurry touched a raw nerve among the environmentalists who have seen how the private sector and bureaucracy were hand in glove to destroy rich forest land from Kudremukh in the south to Aravalli in the north. India is steadily losing dense forests and gaining in degraded lands and plantation areas. The draft provides no road map on how the situation could be reversed.

The policy suggests imposing a cess for the forestry sector. While almost Rs 45,000 crore is available in a corpus monitored by the Supreme Court, why was such a cess proposed in the first place? Instead of burdening the taxpayer, what is required is a transparent and honest mechanism to ensure proper utilisation of the existing money for greening India without depriving the forest dwellers.