There has been a huge decline in the total forest areas of India in the Last three decades. In these last thirty years 15000 sq. km of forest areas have fallen prey to 23,716 industrial projects. A total 4,497 sq. km of forest areas for the mining industries, 1549 sq. km for defense projects and 1,351 sq. km for Hydral Electricity Projects had been cleared.
However, these are only the official statistics; the real damage can be a lot more than the depicted. A recent survey carried by the IISc, Bengaluru has indicated that there has been a decrease of 2.84%, 4.38% & 5.77% in the Northern, Central and Southern parts of Western Ghat.
But this does not end here, because the policies which are now being introduced could make it worse.
According to a statement given by the government in the parliament last year, every year 25000 hectares of forest areas are given to non-forest activities like defense projects, dams mining, power plants, industries and road construction. According to a report, the half of the total forest area in Punjab has been transferred in such a manner during the last 30 years.
However, Indian forest Report 2015 has stated that the total percentage of forest area has increased during the last 29 years; it has gone to 701,673 sq. km from 640,819 sq. km. But this is nothing but mere jugglery of facts. An English economist once said that if you torture statistics for a certain period time, you can get them to say anything you want to. This fits exactly in this case.
The definition of the word “Forest” has been changed to show increment in the total forest area. The Central Government has claimed that this increment is due to reforestation, but the truth is that only trees of one particular species were planted in the name of reforestation, this does not compensate for the forest areas with diversity in flora and fauna. Even, the central government in April, 2016 agreed that compensatory reforestation does not overcome the damage done to the forest areas; it only minimizes its aftereffects to a certain extent.
Revised Environment protection law is an open license for the exploitation of forest areas!
The environment ministry has a declared a two pronged revision in the environment protection laws. According to the first reform, there are provisions to overlook backlog violations by industries. That means if there is an industrial projects which has started without taking approval& it has caused damage to the environment afterwards then these projects could be kept running by applying for backlog clearance. The next reform literally refutes the idea of environment violation itself. According to this reform, instead of going with the criminal procedures in these cases, they would be settled by ensuring financial penalties.
In April 2016, the central government defending its decision has stated that the goal of these reforms is to force the industries to compensate financially for environment violation and use this money to undo the damage done to the environment, also from now on the industries will not face the danger of being shut down due to these reasons.
Between 15 March 2017 & 15 September 2017, there have been many industrial projects which have violated EIA 2006, in the past which have applied for clearance.
In fact within three months of declaration, 98 industrial projects have applied for clearance & 207 industrial projects have applied for Terms of Reference. 69% of the industrial projects from the mining sector alone, while 15% of them are from Construction sector.While, if the justification given by the Central Government is to be believed the money accumulated by financial penalties would be used compensate for the damage done to the environment, then we must also remember CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority), which had similar provisions and did not prove effective in stopping environment violation. It may well happen; that the government would pat its back for the revenue generated but would be “surprised” to notice the damage done to the bio-diversity.
Actually, all of these proposed reforms seem to be a part of Make in India initiative. The Prime Minister has been regularly saying that they are barriers which hinder the growth of industry and he wants to change this scenario. New reforms are steps taken in this direction. But to let the forest areas open for exploitation by a handful of industrialist for their own greed is an unacceptable step. However, these new reforms are rather relieving for the private sector. Now, they have almost an open license. But its aftereffects would be devastating, because the exploitation of the environment would now be in legal limits. Environment violation does not only effects the biodiversity of the environment but it also affects the workers employed in it & the people who live in areas around such industries.
The loss due to the forests being cut & other damage cannot be measured by money. The central government is clearly ignoring this fact. These proposed two pronged reforms surely raise questions on the government about its attitude toward environment conservation.
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