New Delhi: An August 11 letter by an additional chief secretary in Odisha’s forest department, saying that the concept of a deemed forest stood “removed”, has now been withheld.
A new letter dated Monday (August 14) by Deben Pradhan, an additional secretary to government in the same department, says that the contents of the previous letter are to be followed “only after [the] receipt of detailed rules and guidelines from the [the Union environment ministry]”.
Sources told the Indian Express that the Odisha government put its August 11 order on hold anticipating criticism from environmentalists.
Activists did criticise the government order when it became public.
Prerna Singh Bindra, a conservationist and former member of the National Board for Wildlife, said on X (formerly Twitter) that the government saying the category of deemed forests was ‘removed’ was in contradiction to an earlier guarantee made by the Union environment ministry.
The ministry had clarified to a joint parliamentary committee examining the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 that lands identified by state expert committees as deemed forests would come under the purview of the amended forest conservation law.
‘Deemed’ forests are those not recorded by governments as forests, but that satisfy the dictionary meaning of a forest – i.e. any large area with significant tree cover and undergrowth.
This concept is the result of a 1996 Supreme Court decision known as the Godavarman judgment, which was made in a timber logging case.
The Odisha government’s order seemingly declaring the concept null raised worries that such lands, which experts told The Hindu constitute nearly half of Odisha’s forests, would no longer be protected under the Forest Conservation Act.
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“Does the ministry know for a fact that all [expert committees] have recorded deemed forests? Was any ground-truthing (sic) done, were cadastral surveys undertaken to record and demarcate such forests in the field?” Bindra asked in her post.
Does the ministry know for a fact that all SECs have recorded deemed forests? Was any ground-truthing done, were cadastral surveys undertaken to record and demarcate such forests in the field? In #Kerala, one of the more diligent states, they were not 6/n
— prerna singh bindra 🐘🐅🐾 (@prernabindra) August 14, 2023
“In a hurry to divert forests, Odisha has overstepped the line. Shockingly, as per a news report … there are over 6 lakh hectares of deemed forest in Odisha which will now not have ANY legal protection and can be merrily handed over to industry, for mining, to build malls and motels, or whatever you fancy,” she continued to say.
Debadityo Sinha, an ecologist working at the Delhi-based Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, said that Odisha’s August 11 letter was “not just a letter, it’s a precedent, recipe of disaster to be followed soon by other states if not challenged it’s legality and validity immediately.”
Tushar Dash, a researcher who studies forest rights in Odisha, told The Hindu that the state’s deemed forests were also home to tribal and forest-dependent groups.
Even considering the environment ministry’s guarantee to the joint parliamentary committee, The Wire has reported that expert committees are yet to finalise the process of identification of forest lands in some states.
But despite the state government’s fresh letter, Bindra cautioned that the original order has not been withdrawn.
“As [Debadityo Sinha] says, the letter has merely been withheld, it has bot been withdrawn – a warning of the sort of disaster the [Forest Conservation Amendment Act] will unleash,” she said on X.