Minister of environment Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said "the government is re-visiting the Indian Forests Act, 1927, with a view to bring about a more benign legal regime for the settlement of disputes between the forest officials and the local community."
He was speaking during a seminar organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
According to Ramesh, the New Forest Act will be in tune with the Forest Rights Act of 2006. "We are now trying to get away from state control of forests, as enshrined in the Forest Rights Act of 2006, to give the local community a stake in forest control," he said.
"The success rate in preventing the degradation of forests goes up significantly when the user community has a direct economic stake in forests," Ramesh said.
The National Committee on Forest Rights Act (FRA), headed by National Advisory Council member N.C. Saxena, on Tuesday submitted a report which recommended a three-tier forest management system where some part of the forest will be under exclusive control of people living there-some under joint community-government management and remaining with the forest departments, the move will bring about an end to the forest department's exclusive control over Indian forests.
The minister, however, clarified that the community-led model of forest control does not mean abdication of the state's role.
"They (forests) not only face the existential threat from encroachments…but they also face what is increasingly becoming perhaps the single biggest threat to Indian forests, which I call the developmental threat," Ramesh said.
Jairam Ramesh who was always remained in one controversy after another said that he is clueless about how he gained anti development tag. "I don't know how to deal with those who call me antidevelopment," Ramesh said.
"In the current scenario India has to make a critical choice between having a healthy environment and achieving 9 per cent economic growth," Ramesh said.
"I have no answer to those who asked why the environment should take priority over economic growth, and by implication, over alleviating poverty.
"We ( the forest department) can save the forests from local encroachments - the cattle, the people... all that can be managed. But the growth dynamic cannot be managed," Jairam said.
Planning Commission chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia who has been sparring with Jairam over the development versus environment issue on Wednesday struck a conciliatory note saying it was important for the State to give authority to the locals to make rules and impose penalties on the offenders.
"I compliment Jairam for raising consciousness that this is important; for drawing attention to the fact that 'business as usual' isn't doing a good job," Ahluwalia said.
"In the 12th Plan, the Planning Commission would give primacy to this aspect as the ' business- as- usual' approach had not worked," Ahluwalia said.
Courtesy: Mail Today 
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