The Hindu : Dying forests, dwindling votes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 13, 2003

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Dying forests, dwindling votes

By Lalit Shastri

BHOPAL DEC. 12. Despite the previous Digvijay Singh-led Congress Government's emphasis on structuring special policies for the of forest dwellers, the Congress suffered a crushing defeat in the just concluded Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections in the tribal areas.

A close analysis of the State Government's initiative in the forest sector shows that while on the one hand funds meant for forestry management kept getting credited into the accounts of the Joint Forest Management Committees over the past few years, most forest dwellers on the other hand continued to suffer while the forest cover kept dwindling at a rapid pace.

After it had been decided by the Digvijay Singh Government in 1995-96 that the World Bank-aided forestry project should go to the Joint Forest Management Committees, a total of Rs. 260 crores was distributed among these committees.

The JFMCs, which did not include all the villagers, were formed through a resolution of the Government and not an executive order. These committees were neither registered under any statute nor governed by any by-laws. Recently the State Accountant-General and Comptroller and Auditor- General also raised serious objections regarding the financial "impropriety'' linked with the JFMCs.

In September 2000, the Supreme Court had through an order pulled up the State Forest Department for not financing adequate regeneration of forest areas. The apex court had also asked the State Government to regenerate forests with immediate effect. In response to this, the State Government began allocating over Rs. 70 crores each year for regeneration of forests and this money was directly credited to the account of JFMCs.

In another order, the Supreme Court said that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MEoF) would be competent to grant permission to fell forests if adequate measures were taken to regenerate forest areas. In the last three financial years, Rs. 160 crores to Rs. 190 crores have been deposited with the JFMCs but at the ground level there is hardly any proof that the forest areas have been regenerated.

The JFMCs were never subjected to any system of audit and the Congress party lost badly in the Assembly elections in the tribal dominated areas where huge funds aggregating over Rs. 400 crores were passed on to the JFMCs.

In the last few years, Madhya Pradesh also witnessed over-exploitation of forest resources. According to Forest Department sources, large forests have been felled in the State and the average growing stock has come down from 53 cmt to 49 cmt per hectare. The Congress Government also decided that all revenue accruing from timber and bamboo be distributed among the JFMCs even though there was no budget allocation. For implementing this dictat, certain funds were reattributed for distributing timber bonus to thousands of JFMCs even without obtaining sanction of the State Finance department.

The State Government was also desperate to settle the eligible encroachers on forest land till March 7, 1979. The Supreme Court order had in this regard ordered compensatory afforestation on equivalent forest land. Obviously to give the impression that the apex court order was being followed, the State Government deposited funds at the rate of approximately Rs. 4000 per hectare in the account of the JFMCs and submitted a report maintaining that the target of compensatory afforestation had been achieved. Senior forest department officials point out that nothing was done on the ground level when it came to artificial regeneration on 3.5 lakh hectare of forest land for conversion of forest villages into revenue villages under the Forest Conservation Act guidelines. The lapse on this count was also highlighted by the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, at a public rally in the tribal dominated Mandla district headquarters in Madhya Pradesh earlier this year.

Forest department officials point out that because of stoppage of artificial regeneration, the forest area in Madhya Pradesh is drying down. At least 40000 hectare of forest area in the Khandwa circle has already dried down. Similar signs are also appearing in Betul and Damoh districts, they said.

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Dying forests, dwindling votes