Compensatory Afforestation Bill : A Spell Of Doom For India’s Forests And ItsInhabitants

The proposed changes in the form of the
compensatory a forestation fund bill
The compensatory a forestation fund bill:
capitalisation of nature
On 28th July, 2016, the Rajya Sabha
unanimously passed the deeply troublesome
compensatory afforestation fund management
bill, 2016. The bill was earlier passed by Lok
Sabha without much ado. The bill seeks to set up
a compensatory afforestation management and
planning authority which will have the trusteeship
of Rs. 42000 Crore to be distributed to the
states in their efforts to promote compensatory
Afforestation.2 The bill is a result of a long period
of contemplation regarding the need to stop the
further receding of the forests. The MOEF has
heaved a sigh of relief in a recent statement
welcoming the bill as a much needed legislation
required to kick start all the stalled projects in
relation to the restocking of the degraded forests
of India. But the bill has received much flak from
environmental groups and the forest dwellers for
its incoherence and myopic vision. It comes in
direct conflict with the Scheduled Tribes and
Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition
of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (“Forest Rights
Act”) and reflects and archaic colonial mind set
of dealing with the environment in a reductionist
manner in isolation from the people that inhabit
it.3