By bypassing the Forest Rights Act in acquiring land for compensatory afforestation and by allowing plantations to replace biodiverse forests as a part of this afforestation, two laws meant to protect forests and the environment are actually threatening India’s dwindling forests and already marginalised forest dwellers, an analysis of land diversion data since 2008 and amendments to forest laws show.
Data from different government sources on forest land diverted do not match and the land under compensatory afforestation is less than the forest land diverted between 2008 and 2019, even when the law mandates that at least an equal-sized tract of land should be afforested.
The two laws are the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, which regulates the diversion of forests for non-forest use, and the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016, which regulates the funds for compensatory…