Illegal Forest Diversion
Under the Forest (Conservation) Act, the Central government's permission is required before forest land can be used for non-forest uses. In practice the government has treated this provision as if only the Centre's permission is required, and proceeded to hand over huge areas of forest and forest lands to projects and private companies without consulting or even informing those most affected - the local communities.
Between 2001 and 2006 alone, more than five lakh hectares of forest land was "diverted" for non-forest use by the Central government. Even for a year and a half after the Forest Rights Act came into force, the government continued to grant permission for take over of forest lands, even though the governmnt was required to recognise people's rights first. After repeated mass protests, new orders were issued in July 2009. But will any action be taken against those responsible? And will illegal diversion actually be halted?
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