The Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has published proposed amendments to the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
The proposed amendment will ease diversion of forests and exempting certain categories of development from the need to take clearance from the Ministry.
Here are the proposed amendments to the Forest Conservation Act, 1980
- All land acquired by the Railways and Roads Ministries prior to 1980 be exempted from the Act. According to the ministry, these lands had been acquired for expansion, but subsequently forests have grown in these areas, and the government is no longer able to use the land for expansion. If the amendment is brought in, these Ministries will no longer need clearance for their projects, nor pay compensatory levies to build there.
- For individuals whose lands fall within a state-specific Private Forests Act or come within the dictionary meaning of forest as specified in the 1996 Supreme Court order, the government proposes to allow “construction of structures for bona fide purposes’’ including residential units up to 250 sq m as a one-time relaxation.
- Defence projects near international borders will be exempted from forest clearance.
- Oil and natural gas extraction from forested lands will be permitted, but only if technologies such as Extended Reach Drilling are used.
- The Ministry has proposed doing away with levies for non-forestry purposes during the renewal of a lease, saying the double levy at the time of awarding of the lease and the renewal is “not rational”.
- Strip plantations alongside roads that would fall under the Act will be exempted
(Source: Indian Express)
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