India is fast losing her forests, thanks to her government. India’s deforestation rose from 384,000 hectares in the ten years between 1990 and 2000 to 668,000 hectares in five years between 2015 and 2020. How do you get a few thousands of those hectares of forests? You have to be a friend of the central government, in the first place. Then you need to conjure up some developmental project like oil palm cultivation or ecotourism or something of the sort. That’s almost all. Quite simple. On 4 Aug this year, the Modi government amended the Forest Conservation Act 1980 to make deforestation as easy as bulldozing the houses of certain people in Uttar Pradesh or Haryana. There is no Forest Conservation Act now. What Mr Modi has given the country in its place is Van [Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan] Adhiniyam. Quite a mouthful, isn’t it? Sounds exotic too. Only, it is – far from being exotic – toxic. This new Adhiniyam [half of Indians won’t understand what that is] narrows the definition ...
Cerebrate and Celebrate