QUESTION

Critically examine the impact of Forest Conservation Act, 1980 for the protection of forests
in India.

Answer:

Forest Conservation Act, 1980 was enacted by Parliament of India to control the

deforestation of the forest areas in India. This Act came into force on 25th October 1980 and
the Act was further amended in 1988. Now, this Act applies to the whole of India after
waiving the special rights which were granted to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir. 

This Act has the following features: 

 Forests were transferred from the state list to the concurrent list under the
Constitution. Thus, due to this shift, the Central Government was empowered to
directly act in order to conserve forests. This Act ensures the conservation of forest
grounds.

 This Act empowers State Governments to use forest area only for forestry purposes.

 Forest is treated as a national asset. Therefore, the state governments have to seek the
central government’s approval if it plans to use the forest area for:

1. Reforestation.

2. Non-forestry purposes such as mining.  

 There are provisions under this Act which was drafted with the intent to reduce the
rate of Deforestation. It causes an imbalance in nature and ecology. This, in turn,
leads to the degradation of environmental quality.

 The act seeks to check the de-reservation of forests. Another important feature of this
Act is that the Central Government’s prior approval is an absolute necessity when it
comes to dereservation of reserved forest areas.

 The Act ensures that in order to stop forest dwellers from cutting trees, they must
have full access to fuel, fodder, building material, wood etc at a subsidized rate.

 Compensatory afforestation is also one of the salient features of this Act as it

promotes this practice throughout the statute.
  This Act seeks to modify working plans into environmentally sound and scientifically
researched action plans. So, all kinds of risks and costs are minimised.

 This Act contains provisions that were drafted with the intent to protect standing
Forests.

 The Act also seeks to spread awareness amongst organizations and the public at large
about forest conservation and protection. The government is required to create an
information base.

 This legislation is pretty short with only 5 sections. However, this legislation is
significant enough because it is effective and has been somewhat successful in
conserving forests.

Why was the Forest Conservation Act,1980 needed?

The objective and reasons for having The Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and those are as
follows-

 The main reason is to keep an eye on the deforestation and degradation of natural
renewable resources i.e. forests.

 To provide forest dwellers sources like food, fuel, building material etc at subsidized
rates. 

 To modify the working plans into environmentally friendly plans.

 To maintain or to conserve the integrity, territory, and individuality of the forest.

 To protect the conservation of forest into agriculture land, grazing land, building of
business and residential units.

 To prevent biodiversity.

 To preserve the ecological components and to prevent the depletion of flora and
fauna.

 To restrict the hunting and trapping of wildlife.

 To grant special permission for hunting of wildlife for scientific research.

Impact of the Forest Conservation Act,1980:

Despite the implementation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, many rivers and lakes
continue to be choked with industrial waste and sewage. Air quality is getting worse day by
day. Deforestation and protection of wildlife are still not taking place despite the enforcement
of this Act.

The number of the problems which are faced by the Forest Consevation Act are as follows-

 Lack of manpower in the regulatory agencies as compared with the increasing rate of
industries.

 Lack of technical knowledge which is required to enforce the regulations.

 An increasing rate of corruption.

 Lack of financial resources.

 Lack of dedicated staff.

 Resistance to change.

As mentioned earlier, this Act contains all types of forests which are reserve forests,
protected forests and village forests. The Act contains several provisions to control
deforestation and to encourage afforestation of non-forest areas. The National Forest Policy,
1980 prohibits the state government to declare any portion of the state as non-reserve without
prior permission from the Central Government. The amended Act in 1988 prohibited the
lease of the forest to anybody other than the government. This step of the government helps
to increase the forest cover to an average of thirty percent. However, every coin has two
sides. Similarly, this Act does have its drawbacks and those are-

 The Act has transferred the power from the state to the central government which
means that the power is centralized at the top.

 The Act has also failed to attract public support because it has infringed the human
rights of poor native people.

 Very less participation of the poor community leads to the ineffectiveness of this Act.
 Forest dwellers and tribal communities have rich knowledge about forest resources
but their contribution is never acknowledged.