Loot & plunder of India’s forests

The Aravalli forests are the green lungs of the NCR which are now in danger due to an order passed by the Haryana Assembly that amended a 118-year-old Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill. The Supreme Court called the order ‘obnoxious and contemptuous’ and put a stay on the order. The order had proposed to permit construction work to be carried in the forest area of the aravallis, which would damage the flora & fauna of the region and could lead to ecological imbalance of the Aravallis and the nearby regions

Are we playing havoc with our forest cover in the name of development? Haryana Assembly amended 118-year-old Act to allow construction in Aravalli; SC stayed the decision.
Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill was passed on Wednesday, February 27, 2019, in the State Assembly. What in effect this amendment did to the 118-year-old bill, which restricted the construction and other activities in the large region of the Aravallis, was to open huge amount of activities that will lead to its destruction. There was opposition to the amendment from other party members who demanded the formation of an all-party action committee to scrutinise the bill. But the Government of Haryana overruled the opposition demand and passed the amendment bill. This bill does not just allow construction in Aravalli and NCR region but worse, it amends the bill with retrospective effect from 1966. A few days after the amendment, the apex Court slammed the Haryana Government’s action and called it “obnoxious and contemptuous” while putting a stay order on the decision. The Court said “Prima facie it seems to be highly obnoxious and contemptuous. It is the violation of the Court’s orders. If you have enacted such law then you are in trouble. It is not permissible. You cannot get rid of a judicial order. You are not supreme and supreme is the law of the country.”

Worrying amendment
While we are debating new trends in urban development, the COP24 programs by UN agencies, while submitting ourselves to global agreements and arrangements, at home we are oblivious of these facts. Let’s look at what this amendment does

• This amendment also permits the Kant enclave’s construction which was ordered to be bulldozed by the Supreme Court last year. Kant enclave was constructed on forest land protected by the PLPA in Faridabad.
• Reportedly, the orders and notifications were issued under Section 4 or Section 5 of the Act. This extends over an area of about 10,94,543 hectares which equals to approximately 25 per cent of the total area of the State. This notification covers 14 out of 22 districts and almost the entire districts of Gurugram, Rewari and Mahendergarh are covered under PLPA.

Kiran Chowdhary of the Congress says “I opposed this amendment in the Assembly. The worst thing with this amendment is that they amend it retrospectively from 1966. Now, mining mafia, the land mafia will intrude in the Aravalli range”. She reinforced her point and said Aravalli ecosystem is one of the oldest ranges of the world. Congress tried to save the bill. When I was forest minister we formed the National Conservation Zone (NCZ) but now this amendment will affect it. This government is only favouring their mates. Let us forget the politicians, though they change the rules and acts, environmentalists are claiming that after this amendment, rampant construction and illegal activities will be initiated in this region. This will create ecological imbalance in Aravalli and its nearby region. This will also impact on the groundwater level in this region which is already very low. Reportedly, citizens of Gurugram and Faridabad protested against this bill with banners of “No Aravallis No Vote.”
“It was extremely disheartening to see the government pass such legislation when the air quality in Gurgaon is so alarming. Gurgaon has likely been reduced only to the cyber city and SEZ with little importance to the environment. The forest is not the first thing, water shortage in Gurgaon is an age-old issue. I myself moved to Gurgaon 2 years ago only to discover I’m allergic to the air here.” said Bhumika Sharma, resident of Gurugram. The Aravalli forests are the green lungs of the NCR. Imagine the pollution and dust if these are opened up for greedy builders, with the help of our politicians.
RIP India’s most pristine & dense forest area in Chhattisgarh as it gets coal mining clearance – Centre’s nod for mining in 170,000 hectares of forest in Chhattisgarh
The Union Environment Ministry has given environmental clearance for open cast coal mining in Parsa in Chhattisgarh’s dense Hasdeo Arand forests, in a decision that could have far-reaching consequences for forest cover conservation in India.
Hasdeo Arand is one of the largest contiguous stretches of very dense forest in central India, spanning about 170,000 hectares. Parsa is one of the 30 coal blocks in Hasdeo Arand. The mine, which has a capacity of 5 million metric tonnes per annum (MPTA), will be operated by Rajasthan Collieries Limited (RCL). It received stage 1 forest clearance in February this year, but the minutes of the forest advisory committee’s meeting highlighted that a section of the 841 hectares to be diverted for the mine lies in very dense forest. The mine which is opencast mining needs to remove all vegetation and soil from the area. It came up for consideration of the environment ministry’s expert appraisal committee (EAC) thrice before clearance was finally granted on February 21, 2019. Earlier in 2018. EAC had sought the State Tribal Welfare Department’s comments on the status of gram sabha consent for the project and the impact on tribal populations. It also sought the state wildlife board’s opinion on the impact of mining on the elephant corridor that runs through the forest. In its July 24, 2018 meeting, the EAC again sought the same clarifications. The minutes of the meeting suggest the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RVUNL) submitted information on these two queries in September 2018 but there are no details on whether gram sabha consent was taken. Another issue raised by activists and legal experts is that forest clearance to an adjoining mine on the Hasdeo Arand fringe — Parsa East and Kete Basao captive coal block — was granted on condition that the Chhattisgarh government would not allow opening up of the main Hasdeo Arand area. However, the Parsa open cast mine that was granted clearance last month is in the core Hasdeo Arand forests.
“Apart from pending legal issues and procedural lapses, the grant of approval [for open cast mining at Parsa] completely goes against the precautionary principle that is the need of the hour. Initiating mining will fragment one of the last remaining contiguous forest patches in Central India, violate forest rights and increase human-wildlife conflict,” said Kanchi Kohli, a legal researcher at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in Delhi.
In 2009, the Environment Ministry categorised Hasdeo Arand as a ‘no-go’ area for mining for its rich, unfragmented forest cover. Environment activists fear the approval for mining will likely be detrimental to forest conservation.
“Environmental clearance issued to Parsa mine is illegal because the forest advisory committee had earlier held that Hasdeo Arand cannot be opened up for mining. The Forest Survey of India, in a 2014 report, had recommended that Hasdeo Arand should be inviolate for mining” said Shrivastava, the lawyer who has moved court for de-allocation of a coal block adjacent to Parsa. RVUNL, which owns Parsa, said it has all necessary permissions. “We have received all permissions except a final forest clearance, which will come through anytime. The cases pending in the Supreme Court are related to other coal blocks, so they will not affect this project,” said SS Meena, Director (technical) at RVUNL.
Before granting forest clearances it is critical that a biodiversity impact assessment is done. The value of ecosystems and biodiversity cannot be treated as a postscript of forest land diversion decisions. In fact, a comprehensive impact assessment report taking into account factors like ecological, environmental and social consequences of forest land diversion is the need of the hour to improve the integrity of clearance process.