THE CONCRETE JUNGLE: AFFORESTATION A SOLUTION?

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1 THE CONCRETE JUNGLE: AFFORESTATION A SOLUTION? Purva Kohli Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University (U.P.) Forests help in maintaining the ecological balance. Besides the benefits from environmental and ecological perspective, forests bring revenue to the state. With a cover of 23% of Geographical area of the country, forest in India comprise of a number of diverse forest types and reserved areas designated as National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. In India, forest meet the livelihood needs of people living in and adjoining the forests in about 1, 73,000 villages. Forests also act as carbon sinks and regulators of water regime. The conflict of values is to be reconciled and also form the basis of formulation of legal policies and devices for the management of forests. One of the device is afforestation. Afforestation refers to the process of converting a non-forest land into a forest. India has to compromise with the environment for setting up various industries. For that reason, deforestation is happening around the country for creating Infrastructure. All of these are unavoidable for developing country like India. Any project proponent, government or private, must apply for forest clearance from Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), before the conversion of land takes place. This proposal is to be submitted through the concerned forest department of the state government. If clearance is given, then compensation for the lost forest land is also to be decided by the ministry and the regulators. For that reason, nowadays afforestation is very much necessary in India to maintain the biodiversity in the environment. The Hon ble Supreme Court on 10th July 2009 issued orders that there will be a Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) as National Advisory Council for monitoring, technical assistance and evaluation of compensatory afforestation activities. Introduction Forests are among the most important repositories of terrestrial biological diversity. Together, tropical, temperate and boreal forests offer very diverse habitats for plants, animals and micro-organisms. Biological diversity is the basis for a wide array of goods and services provided by forests. The variety of forest trees and shrubs play a vital role in the daily life of rural communities in many areas, as sources of wood and non-wood products, as contributors to soil and water conservation, and as repositories of aesthetic, ethical, cultural and religious values. Forest animals are a vital source of nutrition and income to many people, and have vital roles in forest ecology, such as pollination, seed predation, dispersal and germination, and predation on potential pest species. Forest biological diversity is one of the seven thematic elements of the concept of Sustainable Forest Management approved by the General Assembly of the UN in 2007, together with the Non-Legally Binding Instrument on All Types of Forests. Forests provide more than 10% of the GDP in many of the poorest countries. It is estimated that the forestry sector provides formal employment for 10 million people and informal employment for additional 30 to 50 million people in developing countries. 1 1 FAO on forests 1 THE WORLD JOURNAL ON JURISTIC POLITY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2 History Forest was in abundance in ancient India. The religion, culture and tradition of ancient India favoured protection of flora and fauna, and only rational utilisation of forest resources for human needs and welfare was made. However imperial control over Indian forest initiated by Indian rulers and continued by the British regime brought out a revenue oriented policy towards forest. The Britishers favoured over-exploitation of Indian forests to protect the mercantile interests and to meet the demand of their army and navy. The Forest Acts of 1865, 1878 and 1927 were instrumental in achieving that object. Even after independence, the revenue oriented policy towards exploitation of forest was not changed and the Indian Forest Act 1927 continued to be in force in Indian territories states which enacted separate legislation on forest relied on the provisions of the Indian Forest Act without analysing the impact of such a law on forest. The United Nations Conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972 aroused a world-wide environmental consciousness. It had its impact in India also. The Constitution of India was amended in 1976 to include environmental safeguards. The Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 was passed to arrest large scale deforestations. Department of Environment and Forest was established at the Centre, Judiciary made landmark decisions to ensure environmental protection. The people of India became more and more aware of the environmental significance of forest. They even started revolts against deforestation. Inspite of all these changes in outlook and approach, the Indian Forest Act 1927 and the legislation framed by different States on the lines of the Indian Forest Act remained the same as before. They do not reflect a policy of environmental protection. Instead, they continue the revenue oriented approach of the colonial era. Common Definitions Today, there are more than 800 definitions of the term "forest." These definitions differ based on the emphases or concerns of different people. A legal definition is different from an ecological definition. The perspective of the economist differs from that of a geographer. All definitions stress the importance of trees in the system and include places where tree cover ranges from 5% to as high as 100%. Forest is generally understood by a layman from its dictionary meaning as woodland or a large area covered with dense growth of trees and shrubs. However in defining the word Forest, different countries or regions within the countries, have different definitions keeping in view the objectives or the purposes of managing those forests. No single definition of forests would meet the requirement of all the countries, but some common workable definitions have been evolved by FAO, UNFCC etc., by including certain parameters with threshold values in the context of requirement of global efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of deforestation, environmental degradation and climate change, as they are transboundary. The threshold values of the parameters and the wordings in the definition of Forest play a crucial role in legal interpretation of land use, assessment of 2 THE WORLD JOURNAL ON JURISTIC POLITY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

3 extent of forest area or its resources locally, regionally or globally, development of policy frame work and planning, conservation, and sustainable forest management. Indian Context There is no definition of the word Forest in two important national acts of forests, i.e. Indian Forest Act 1927, and Forest Conservation Act However a local Forest Act in Meghalaya namely The United Khasi & Jaintia Hills Autonomous District (Management and Control of Forests) Act 1958 has a definition of forest, for the purpose of management of forests of that locality, the section 2 (f) of which says, Forest means and shall be deemed to be a forest, if in the area there are reasonable no. trees, say, not less than twenty five per acre reserved or any other forest produce growing on such area, which have been or are capable of being exploited for purposes of business or trade. The Hon ble Supreme Court of India 2 has defined the words Forest, and Forest land occurring in section 2 of F.C Act as below. The word forest must be understood according to its dictionary meaning. This description covers all statutorily recognized forests, whether designated as reserved, protected or otherwise for the purpose of Section 2(i) of the Forest Conservation Act. The term "forest land", occurring in Section 2, will not only include "forest" as understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in the Government record irrespective of the ownership. After the above definition/ interpretation of words Forest and Forest Land by the Hon ble Apex Court, the Sec. 2 (d) of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, defined the Forest Land on similar lines and the same is as follows. Forest land means land of any description falling with in any area and includes unclassified forests, undemarcated forests, existing or deemed forests, protected forests, reserved forests, Sanctuaries and National parks. The above stated definitions are legal definitions of forest for the purposes of interpreting the term forest land occurring in the concerned Acts. India is yet to evolve a comprehensive definition of the word Forest. However, for the purpose of CDM Forest in pursuance of the Kyoto Protocol India has come up with a definition as per the threshold limits fixed by UNFCCC for different parameters, according to which, A forest is a land area of atleast 0.05 ha, with a minimum tree crown cover of 15%, and tree height of atleast 2 m 2 order dated in WP No. 202/95, 3 THE WORLD JOURNAL ON JURISTIC POLITY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

4 As per the India State of Forest Report 2011, Forest Area means, the area recorded as Forest in government records. The term Forest Cover includes all lands with more than 1 Ha. area with tree canopy density of more than 10 % irrespective of ownership and legal status. Afforestation Afforestation is the act or process of establishing a forest especially on land not previously forested. 3 Afforestation and reforestation both refer to establishment of trees on non-treed land. Reforestation refers to establishment of forest on land that had recent tree cover, whereas afforestation refers to land that has been without forest for much longer. A variety of definitions differentiate between these two processes. 4 India is an emerging or developing country whereas the controlling of Carbon emission is very much challenging for the policy makers. The main reason is that India needs much more versatile industries to create jobs for unemployment youths which can directly increase the per capita income and the overall GDP (Gross Domestic Product). So India has to compromise with the environment for setting up various industries (National Highways, Airports etc), Industries (Steel, Power, FMCG, Engineering etc), Mining (Coal, Minerals, Metals etc), Oil and Gas exploration etc. All of these are unavoidable for developing country like India. For that reason, nowadays afforestation is very much necessary in India to maintain the biodiversity in the environment. There are two ways i.e. afforestation and reforestation, the development of new forest on a non-forest land is called afforestation but reforestation means the reestablishment of the forest cover by either naturally or artificially (manual planting of trees). Considering the need of afforestation in India, many government, private and NGOs are engaged to create new forests through afforestation method to maximize the carbon capture or control the soil erosion. The total forest area was million hectares in 1950 and then it was increased to million-hectare forest area in And finally 69-million-hectare area was under forest had been reported in So massive 70.5% increase of area under cover forests had been seen between the periods of 1950 to 2006 due to afforestation. One of the Factors for this increase is compensatory afforestation by CAMPA 5, NAEB 6 The 2015 Bill on Compensatory Afforestation A bill was passed by Lok Sabha in 2008 for providing a proper institutional mechanism for compensatory afforestation matters, but lapsed due to dissolution of Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, the Ad-hoc CAMPA used to carry out the CA related matters. The 3 According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary 4 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5 Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority 6 National Afforestation & Eco-Development Board 4 THE WORLD JOURNAL ON JURISTIC POLITY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 accumulated unspent amounts available with the ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), as on April 2015, are of the order of Rs. 38,000 crore. The fresh accrual of compensatory levies and interest on accumulated unspent balance, are of the order of approximately Rs. 6,000 crore per annum. To accelerate the CA activities, the Union Cabinet on 29 April 2015 gave its approval for introduction of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015 in Parliament. The proposed legislation seeks to provide an appropriate institutional mechanism, both at the Centre and in each State and Union Territory, to ensure expeditious utilization, in an efficient and transparent manner, of the amounts realized in lieu of forest land diverted for non-forest purpose. It also seeks to provide safety, security and, transparency in utilization of these amounts, which currently are being kept in Nationalized Banks and are being managed by an ad-hoc body. These amounts would be brought within broader focus of both Parliament and State Legislatures and in greater public view, by transferring them to non-lapsable interest bearing funds, to be created under public accounts of the Union of India and each State. The Bill provides for among other things- Establishment of the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) and the State CAFs to credit amounts collected by State Governments and Union Territory Administrations to compensate loss of forest land diverted for non-forest purpose. Constitution of a National Authority to manage and utilize amounts credited to the National CAF. Constitution of a State Authority in each State and Union Territory to manage and utilize the amounts credited to the State CAFs. Establishment of a Monitoring Group to assist the National Authority in monitoring and evaluation of activities undertaken from amounts released from the National CAF and State CAFs. Expenditure of the National CAMPA is proposed to be met from the funds to be retained in the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) from the accumulated funds transferred to it by the ad-hoc CAMPA, and the funds to be transferred, on yearly basis, to the National CAF from a part of the funds credited by user agencies directly into State CAFs. Conclusion Over the past 50 years, about half the world's original forest cover has been lost, the most significant cause for that being humans beings' unsystematic use of its resources. When we take away the forest, it is not just the trees that go. The entire ecosystem begins to fall apart, with dire consequences for all of us. Are we doing our bit? 5 THE WORLD JOURNAL ON JURISTIC POLITY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.