FKJGP cuts new forest Bill to size, asks governor to deny assent

SHILLONG, DEC 22: The Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP) on Saturday urged the governor R. S. Mooshahary not to give his assent to the recently passed Meghalaya Forest Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2012 as it has sought to change the meaning of forest contrary to the definition provided by the Supreme Court in its landmark judgement of 1996.

In a representation to the governor, FKJGP president Joe Marwein said the meaning of forest as defined in the amended forest Bill not only contravenes the apex court ruling in this regard, but will also lead to widespread degradation of forest and cause loss of livelihood to traditional forest dwellers. “The Bill was passed in a hurried manner on the final day of the recently concluded winter session of Assembly. By denying his assent to such a Bill, the governor will ensure that the forests are not degraded and the livelihood of forest dwellers is protected,” he said.

The amended Bill defines forest as a compact or continuous tract of minimum four hectares land, irrespective of ownership, where more than 250 naturally grown trees per hectares of 15 cm and higher diameter at breath height over bark are present or more than 100 naturally grown bamboo clumps per hectares are present in case of tracts containing predominantly sympodial bamboo.  Such a definition, the FKJGP said, is contrary to the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court which had said: “the term forest land in Section 2 of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 will not only include ‘forest’ as understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in government records irrespective of ownership.”

“It appears the Meghalaya government is not satisfied with the Supreme Court’s definition, and has gone a step further in redefining the term forest. This tantamount to contempt of court and will attract the censure of the Supreme Court,” he warned, adding that the new definition gives immense power to anyone to destroy any tract of forest land less than four hectares in size.

The FKJGP said the Forest Survey of India is the competent authority to determine what constitutes forest cover and its methodology is the uniform throughout the country. “If the amended Bill was to become a law, there will be different figures of forest cover in the state depending on the definitions of the Forest Survey of India and the Meghalaya forest department,” said Marwein.

The FKJGP said when the entire world is grappling with the problem of climate change brought about by, among other things, rapid depletion of forest cover, the new definition will only lead to further degradation of environment in the state, and consequently precipitate the problem of global warming. (By Our Reporter)