House committee submits Forest Bill without changes

NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary Joint committee on the draft Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act 2023 on Thursday has accepted every single amendment proposed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change and recommended it entirely unchanged, as per its report in Parliament on Thursday.

Four Opposition party Members of Parliament- who were on the panel- Congress MPs Pradyut Bordoloi and Phulodevi Netam, Trinamool Congress’ Jawahar Sircar and DMK’s R Girirajan – have expressed their dissent in writing to provisions in the draft Bill.

Bordoloi has said in his dissent note that contrary to the new preamble proposed in the Act, the amendment’s sum and substance ‘emasculates’ the original FCA and ‘subverts’ its purpose.


Netam has stated that while the constitution has entrusted the nation’s forest wealth to the government, the latter is misusing it through these amendments as forests do not appear to be the top priority in these. Girirajan has said the amendments are ‘inconsistent and ultra vires to the principal act’ and ‘severely compromise the constitutional mandate of the State’ to ‘safeguard forests’.