With many infrastructure projects with strategic and military implications being held up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan due to the existing Forest Act of 1980, the government is proposing changes in form of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 that was laid down in the Lok Sabha on March 29.
Accordingly, the defence ministry is in the vanguard of pushing for changes to the Forest Act of 1980 to exempt the entire sweep along the LAC and the LoC—up to 100 km from the border—from the purview of the law so that road construction and setting up of military infrastructure is not held back.
Border road construction and related infrastructure projects have become one of the main force multipliers for making the Indian military operationally more agile in the borders.
With the LAC-LoC stretch being overwhelmingly forested and green-covered, any construction activity in this swath requires adherence to ‘green norms’ and accordingly permission from the relevant authorities.
The proposed law seeks to provide a waiver from the norms in the interest of national security.
Besides the 100 km exemption limit from the LAC and the LAC for “construction of a strategic linear project of national importance and concerning national security”, the bill also asks for exemption for “construction of defence related project or a camp for paramilitary forces or public utility projects up to 10 hectares, proposed to be used for construction of security-related infrastructure.”
It also seeks exemption for construction of projects of “up to 5 hectares in a Left Wing Extremism affected area as may be notified by the Central Government.”
The exemption is however subject to certain conditions like undertaking tree plantations to compensate for the felling of trees that may have been undertaken to build the roads or set up infrastructure projects.
According to the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, “the diversion of reserved forests, use of forest land for non-forest purposes, assigning of forest land by way of lease or otherwise and other activities for regeneration, fire protection, etc., and clearing of naturally grown trees for re-afforestation, requires prior permission of the Central Government.”
But there is another major hitch.
‘Forests’ being an item in the concurrent list of the constitution, the government’s final go-ahead to the infrastructure project will also require the respective state’s approval.
A source familiar with the development told THE WEEK: “It is at the state level where most of the delays take place. The amendment to the existing forest law will expedite infrastructure projects that are imperative from the security viewpoint.”
In 2014, the then Arunachal Pradesh Governor Lt Gen (Rtd) Nirbhay Sharma had written to the PMO pointing out that for most of the rugged and difficult terrain along the Indo-China border in Arunachal, China had built roads that almost touch the LAC while most of the Indian road-heads peter off at least about 50-70 km from the LAC.