Content uploaded not forest draft policy, clarifies ministry

NEW DELHI: Amid criticism from certain quarters for proposing a green cess and permitting private players to use and develop government forest land, the environment ministry on Saturday distanced itself from the draft national forest policy saying “the study report prepared by the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, was inadvertently uploaded as Draft Forest Policy on the website”.
Emphasising that the ministry has not taken any decision on draft forest policy, it said, “A draft forest policy will be put in public domain once due process is carried out and views of all stakeholders are taken into account”. The draft which the ministry now calls a mere study by IIFM, Bhopal, had proposed the levy of a green tax while calling for safeguarding of forests and practising of responsible eco-tourism in forest areas to ensure safety of wildlife.
Contravening the Forest Rights Act and the existing national forest policy of 1988, the study also suggested a new administrative and legal regime diluting the rights of tribals to forest land while giving its control to forest bureaucracy. All these points came in for severe criticism from environmentalists and forest rights activists in the past one week, forcing the ministry to come out with a formal statement on Saturday distancing itself from the ‘study’ that was uploaded as the ‘draft forest policy’ on its website last week.
“The ministry has not issued any draft notification on National Forest Policy. What has been uploaded on the website was a study done by IIFM-Bhopal. “The study has not been evaluated by the ministry. The ministry has not taken any decision on the Draft Forest Policy. The study report prepared by IIFM-Bhopal was inadvertently uploaded as the draft forest policy on the website,” director general, forests, and special secretary of the ministry, SS Negi, said in a statement.
“As director general, forests, I would like to clarify that this document is not the draft forest policy. The ministry has an elaborate procedure for preparing draft policy document, which takes into account multiple inputs from all stakeholders, state governments, think-tanks and public consultation. “No process has been carried out on the document prepared by IIFM-Bhopal, which is only one of the inputs. A draft forest policy will be put in the public domain once due process is carried out and views of all stakeholders are taken into account,” he said.