Data: Over 3 Lakh Hectares of Forest Land Diverted for Non-Forest Use in the Last 15 Years - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 21, 2023
Data provided by the government indicate that over 3 lakh hectares of forest land has been diverted for non-forest purposes in the 15 years between 2008-09 and 2022-23. While the data on compensatory afforestation show that over 9 lakh hectares of compensatory afforestation has been taken up, there are questions around the quality of work, and reliability of data.
The recently concluded Parliament session saw the passage of the highly controversial “Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023” amid wide protests and without much discussion. The bill is aimed to amend the erstwhile Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Among the changes suggested, the below preamble was inserted into the act, and the “Forest (Conservation) Act” is substituted by “Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam” in the principal Act.
While the Environment Ministry claims that this bill eliminates ambiguities in the applicability of the act, conservationists, and other environmentalists fear that this bill could open the floodgates of forest clearances without any restrictions.
But what is the status of forest land diversion in India and what is the extent of compensatory afforestation done in India? Today’s article looks at the statistics related to them and highlights the divergence in the government’s figures.
Approximately one million hectares of forest land diverted for non-forestry use since 1980.
With a view to regulating the diversion of forest land and check for further deforestation, the Government of India enacted the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The act put restrictions on the use of forest land for non-forest purposes.  Prior to the enactment of the act, a total of 4.1 million hectares of forest land was diverted over a period of 25 years between 1951-52 to 1975-76, without undertaking any mitigative measures. The average annual rate of diversion during this period was about 1.65 lakh hectares.
After the enactment of the act, over the forty-year period between 1980 and 2021, a total of 9.9 lakh hectares of forest land is diverted for non-forestry purposes. The average annual rate of diversion during this period came down to around 23,618 hectares. This signifies the role played by the act in minimizing the forest land diversion, while also partly indicating why governments may be keen to make amendments to this act.
Punjab tops in Forest land diversion for non-forestry use in the last 15 years.
To a question on the diversion of forest land for non-forest use in the Parliament, the Government replied that a total of 3,05,945 hectares of forest land have been approved for non-forest use under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 between 2008-09 and 2022-23. This land has been approved for a total of 17,301 projects.
Among the states, Punjab tops the forest land diversion, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Over the last fifteen years, Punjab had diverted over sixty thousand hectares (61,318) whereas Madhya Pradesh diverted more than forty thousand hectares (40,628), and Odisha diverted nearly thirty thousand hectares (28,321). In fact, four states namely Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Telangana account for approximately half of the total forest land diversion in the past fifteen years.
Diversion for mining projects is highest, followed by Road and Irrigation.
Over the past 15 years (between 2008-09 and 2022-23), the data on the diversion of forest land for non-forestry purposes indicate that mining projects account for the highest diversion, followed by road and irrigation projects. Approximately sixty thousand hectares of forest land had been diverted for mining projects, followed by road projects with a diversion of forty-five thousand hectares, and irrigation projects with thirty-six thousand hectares of forest land diversion. Transmission projects account for nearly twenty-six thousand hectares of forest land diversion.
Cumulatively, these four project types- mining, road, irrigation, and transmission account for more than half of the total forest land diversion.
Over 9 lakh hectares of land had been taken up for Compensatory Afforestation in last 15 years.
Compensatory Afforestation is one of the adopted mitigative mechanisms while approving proposals for de-reservation or diversion of forest land for non-forest use.  The purpose of compensatory afforestation (CA) is to compensate for the loss of land by land and the loss of trees by trees.
As per the guidelines, the compensatory afforestation is to be raised on suitable non-forest land, equivalent to the area proposed for diversion, at the cost to be paid by User Agency. Further, the non-forest land for Compensatory Afforestation (CA) had to be located as close to or adjacent to Reserved Forest or Protected Forest.
The data on compensatory afforestation show that over 9 lakh hectares of land had been taken up as compensatory afforestation in the last 15 years between 2008-09 and 2022-23. Almost 1/3 of this has been taken up since 2020-21. The state-level data over the last 15 years indicate that Jharkhand tops in compensatory afforestation with 1.5 lakh hectares, followed by Rajasthan with 1.05 lakh hectares, Karnataka with 0.9 lakh hectares, and Jammu and Kashmir with 0.87 lakh hectares.
However, there are reports of poor quality of the compensatory afforestation, with land being spread in different locations instead of being contiguous, the quality of lands used for afforestation, using lands belonging to tribals and forest dwellers for afforestation among others.
Divergence in Government data on forest land diversions and compensatory afforestation
The data on forest land diversions and compensatory afforestation through various sources does not match, raising serious questions on the reliability of the data. The “e-green watch” portal shows that a total of 3,87,239 hectares of forest land had been diverted for non-forest use (no time period specified), while the Lok Sabha answer (Source: Parivesh.nic.in) shows that 3,05,945 hectares of forest land had been diverted since 2008.
The 2013 compliance report of CAG on Compensatory Afforestation also highlighted the variations in data reported by respective state forest departments and the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
Further, the CAG also expressed concern about the lack of robust reporting mechanisms to monitor the extent to which forest land had been diverted and to judge the extent to which these forest lands had been depleted due to the non-providing of non-forest lands. This mismatch of data is still being reported with varying figures.
The variance in the data and the veracity of the claims regarding the compensatory afforestation puts to question the entire monitoring mechanism in MoEFCC and State Forest Departments in this regard.