36,000 hectares of forest land diverted for infra projects last year

NEW DELHI: The Centre had last year given its approval for diversion of 35,867 hectares of forest land in a total of 783 cases, involving roads, railway lines and infrastructure projects.

Sharing the forest diversion figures, the government on Tuesday informed the Parliament that the maximum forest land of 9,830 ha was diverted in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Odisha (4,516 ha), Andhra Pradesh (3,334 ha) Chhattisgarh (3,236 ha), Jharkhand (2,989 ha) and Maharashtra (2,380 ha).

However, there was no diversion of forest land in Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Pondicherry, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep last year.

Responding to a different query on whether the tribal affairs ministry had raised objections to the dilution of forest law, Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar, in his written response, said, "The process of inter-ministerial consultation is still going on."

He said the environment ministry has formulated revised draft guidelines on ensuring compliance with the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in cases of diversion of forest land for non-forest purpose under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.