Forest Land Acquisition

The Union environment ministry has clarified that all underground works in forest land linked to linear, irrigation, hydel, and other development projects should be considered equivalent to underground mining, which is an environmentally-friendly activity and exempt from compensatory afforestation. The clarification was issued in response to a request from the Rajasthan government, which enquired about the applicability of compensatory afforestation for tunnels constructed as part of water resource development projects. Tunnel construction is environmentally friendly because it does not disrupt surface flora, fauna or ecological regimes, said the ministry. The ministry's guidelines from April 17, 2018, already consider tunnels constructed for hydel projects to be equivalent to underground mining. In a meeting on January 27, the Forest Advisory Committee said the ministry's October 1, 2024, guidelines exempted tunnel construction for linear projects (railways and roads) from ...

Union Minister Bhupender Yadav pointed to the link between desertification and poverty, stating that India recognised land degradation as socio-economic issue and recalled India's presidency at CoP14

The Congress on Sunday accused the central government of trying to weaken the land acquisition act since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also alleged that BJP-ruled states have weakened the law by not following its statutes and are acquiring land by violating its provisions. In a video message posted on X, he dubbed the Modi government "anti-farmer" and said farmers have not been given the price of land as prescribed by the law. The Congress general secretary said that in September 2013, when Manmohan Singh was prime minister, a progressive and historic bill was brought for land acquisition that replaced the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The main highlights of this law was a four-fold increase in the compensation amount in rural areas and two-fold hike in urban areas. There was also a provision that no land would be acquired without the consent of farmers, Ramesh claimed. Conditions were also put in place for the law to have retrospective

In July 2023, the group, in a separate open letter, had criticised the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, which permits the diversion of forest lands for security purposes

Book review of Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World

There are no guidelines for what kinds of forests should be nurtured on land taken up for compensatory afforestation

State govts are failing to realise that farmers, landowners are much more aware of the actual market value of their land and about the legal provisions related to consent and rehabilitation etc

Many such cases are spread across Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka