Assam: 30 proposed reserve forests to be notified as reserve forests

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The state government is going to convert 30 proposed reserve forests (PRF) in the state to reserve forests. The decision is aimed at increasing the green cover and welfare of the animals in the PRFs.

Regarding this, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma held a meeting with senior-most forest officials and administrative officers. Modalities connected to converting the PRFs into reserve forests were the main topic of discussion in the meeting. The CM said, “We are working on a comprehensive plan to enhance the green cover in Assam and earmark more areas as reserve forests. We plan to modify 30 PRFs as reserve forests.”

There are a total of 135 PRFs in the state and 328 reserve forests. The area under reserve forests is 12.92 lakh hectares. Of this, an area of 3.40 lakh hectares is under encroachment.

Sources said that due to encroachments and deforestation, the habitat of the animals is decreasing, along with the resultant food crisis that forces the animals to go out of the forest areas. This, in turn, leads to human-animal conflicts, especially, man-elephant conflicts. Mitigation of this crisis formed the crux of the discussions held in the meeting.

The sources further said that converting PRFs to reserve forests raises issues like providing protection to the animals from encroachment and others. Already, human habitations are present in the PRFs. Removing these habitations will be another challenge before the government, they said.

Sources also said that there is a Supreme Court judgement in the 1996 Godavarman case that is pertinent to the matter. The Godavarman case primarily deals with the interpretation and implementation of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 (FCA) and the Forest (Conservation) Rules, 1981, which provide for the conservation of forests and the protection of wildlife in India. The Supreme Court, in later cases, directed governments to follow the “broad and all-encompassing” definition of forest as laid down in its 1996 judgement in the case until a consolidated record of all kinds of forests across the country is prepared. At that time, the state government was mulling the implementation of the SC judgement, but various setbacks forced the government onto the back foot.

Forest Department sources said that during the process of declaring a PRF, an area is first notified, and then public hearings are conducted by forest settlement officers of ADC rank. A report is prepared on the basis of the public hearings, and a PRF is declared after that. This procedure for PRFs has been used since 1960. However, the forest settlement officers were not enthusiastic about this matter, and not many PRFs were declared. Now, the main thrust should be on not excluding any part of the PRFs while converting them into reserve forests, they opined.

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