Forest rights and forest clearance: the two tracks

Prelims and MainsCurrent affairs on this: Forest laws and forest rights

Two laws meet whenever forest land is put to another use, and most disputes are about the order in which they apply. The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 says no forest land may be diverted without the Centre's prior approval, given in two stages, Stage I in principle and Stage II final, once compensatory afforestation and net present value are paid into CAMPA. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, the Forest Rights Act, recognises the rights of people living in the forest before 13 December 2005, through a claim from gram sabha to district committee, and, through a 2009 circular under the Forest (Conservation) Act rather than its own text, made the gram sabha's consent a condition of diversion. Which comes first, consent or clearance, has been fought over since 2009, and the 2022 rules and the 2023 amendment changed the answer.

• FRA rights: individual forest rights to land under cultivation, community forest rights to minor forest produce, grazing and water, and community forest resource rights to manage the forest itself (Section 3(1)(i)); a claim goes from the gram sabha's Forest Rights Committee to the Sub Divisional Level Committee to the District Level Committee, whose decision is final.
• Who qualifies: Scheduled Tribes resident before the cut off date, and other traditional forest dwellers who show three generations (75 years) of residence, the test that fails most non tribal claims.
• The Forest Rights Act itself does not say consent; a 2009 Ministry circular under the Forest (Conservation) Act made FRA settlement and a gram sabha no objection conditions of clearance, the ground on which the Supreme Court let the Niyamgiri gram sabhas reject bauxite mining in 2013.
• The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 moved the consent step after Stage I clearance, leaving it to the State to obtain before Stage II, which the tribal affairs ministry and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes objected to. A project touching wildlife areas also needs wildlife clearance from the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife, and no work on forest land is allowed until final clearance; the third railway line on the Itarsi Nagpur route through the Satpura Melghat tiger corridor, given Stage I clearance in June 2026 subject to wildlife clearance, with overpasses and underpasses as mitigation, is the worked example.
• The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023, renamed Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, limited the Act to land recorded as forest, exempting land within 100 km of the border for strategic linear projects and small strips along roads and railways; the Supreme Court in February 2024 kept the wide Godavarman meaning of forest in force while the challenge is heard.
• Compensatory afforestation: the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 created National and State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds, split 10:90 between the Centre and the State that lost the forest.

Mains: The Forest Rights Act made the gram sabha the gatekeeper of forest diversion, and every rule change since 2009 has been an attempt to move the gate later in the process, so the law's strength in the statute is not its strength on the ground.

Further reading: Forest Conservation (MoEFCC) · The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 (PRS India)

See also: Gram sabha consent for forest clearance · The Agasthyamalai evictions · Bamboo in forest law · The National Green Tribunal and the pollution boards