The forest resources of India have always been a victim of encroachments ever since India attained freedom in 1947. Because of land hunger and involvement of politicians and social activists, the encroachments on forests have been given different colour and explanation by different groups. It is a well-known fact that India’s food and water security is dependent on a healthy forest resource. The forest land encroachment has evolved into a chronic environmental and socio-political crisis, eroding biodiversity, exacerbating climate vulnerability, and displacing tribal and rural poor communities. Driven by population pressures, economic demands, and weak institutional frameworks, this issue has been significantly worsened by political actions — ranging from populist policies to regulatory dilutions — that prioritise short-term gains over sustainable conservation.
As on March 2024, according to the report submitted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the National Green Tribunal, a figure of over 1.3 million hectares of forest land remains encroached across 25 States and Union Territories. These States and UTs are Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Manipur. States and UTs still to submit the data and details on forest encroachment are Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, Nagaland, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Assam (3,620.9 sq km) and Madhya Pradesh (5,460.9 sq km) are worst affected, followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra. This represents a continuation of trends where India has lost significant forest cover, including 18,200 hectares of natural forest in 2024 alone, according to Global Forest Watch.
There have historically been various reasons for the encroachments on forests. Driven by land hunger, many communities cleared the forest for farming and housing, especially in tribal areas. Large chunks of forests are legally diverted for developmental purposes like dams, irrigation, roads, railway and mining projects, and other developmental works. Urban expansion and illegal mining have also taken a great toll on the primary forests. Since 2014, over 1.73 lakh hectares of forest land have been approved for diversion for non-forestry purposes in India under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2024, as per the figures presented in Parliament. Illegal felling of trees by villagers, smugglers and poachers is also a very serious problem.
Forest reservation after the establishment of the Indian Forest Department in 1864 has always been a subject of debate and discussion, even among the British. Baden Powell, the British civil servant who also worked as Conservator of Forests in Punjab, had always espoused the cause of totalitarian control of forests due to ecological and economic reasons. Compared to him, the German forester Dietrich Brandis, who was appointed as Inspector General of Forests from 1864 to 1883, adopted a pro-people line and, because of him, while the reservation of forests was done, two-thirds of forests were left for the people’s use.
However, in many places there were clashes, but by and large the scientific management of forests ensured better fire protection and soil and moisture conservation. The 1894 forest policy of the colonial regime subordinated forestry to agriculture and large tracts of forests were diverted for agriculture for food production, but it also gave more control to the State for commercial exploitation, especially for expansion of the railway network. A lot of protection forests were created for soil, moisture, and water conservation which boosted agriculture.
However, this policy went topsy-turvy because of the First World War during 1914 to 1918 when the British Navy needed timbers. The British tried to improve things by creating forestry training institutions and the Forest Research Institute, but the two World Wars heavily impacted the sound management of forests. After independence, the ex-princely states incorporated as reserve and protected forests were mostly degraded and also the cause of friction in many places. This friction continued, on the one hand, by the activists who claimed that the reservation process was bulldozed on people by the government.
This helped promote encroachments under political patronage until the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 after the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Bill brought forest and wildlife as concurrent subjects.
Forest and its biodiversity cannot speak for itself. Whatever the history, it is a fact that forests and foresters are treated as road blockers by most of the political parties who rule, as the concept of conservation clashes with the interests of voters and priorities for development. The situation becomes grim as the mineral, tribal and forest maps overlap. Even after enactment of the Forest Rights Act in 2006, the encroachment problem has not subsided; rather, the degraded forests have increased to 28 million hectares.
The FSI report of 2023 clearly shows that more than 50 per cent of the natural forests have deficient regeneration. When this writer was IGF in the Ministry, only 3.5 lakh hectares of land were under encroachment before 1980 when the government agreed to regularise these encroachments, and around 13 lakh hectares were after 1980 in 2001. Now under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs website states that 50,75,083.51 acres of forests under individual rights have been vested to 23,86,670 families. Similarly, 181,98,863.89 acres of forests were vested as community rights to 1,21,705 communities. Naturally, the Act, at the behest of Gram Sabha, distributed and bartered away forests which were not encroached. The process is still going on despite nineteen years of enactment of the Act.
The Act is becoming a political tool to garner votes in the name of issuing land parcels to tribal families. There are reports of heavy encroachments all over and unless a last date is fixed for application submission, the medicine for correcting historical injustice is gradually becoming a ‘poison’ for the forests and the people dependent on forests.
It is high time that the RSS affiliate Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, which has been single-mindedly supporting this Act, realises and gives leadership so that genuine tribals do not suffer in the long term and must root for a deadline for filing applications. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is oblivious of the serious repercussions that are unfolding for the country’s ecological, food, and water security.
The mandarins in government must not fall prey to concerted attempts by foreign-funded NGOs to criticise the forest departments unfairly for meeting their vested agenda. The community rights can only become productive if they are made part of a sound working plan prescription. Planting trees is simple, but manning forests needs professional inputs. Indian forests are crying hoarse to stop further legal or illegal depredation of forests. Nature has started taking revenge, as witnessed in this monsoon. Time to think and think again.
The writer is former director general, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and former Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Horticulture, Government of Tripura
