The recent order passed by the Deputy Commissioner (DC), West Jaintia Hills gives a ray of hope to the civil society that is struggling to conserve the environment. Nongtalang in the War-Jaintia area is a biosphere supporting wild life and unique plantation of betel leaf and betel nut apart from the famous pitcher plant (Nepenthes Khasiana). In India this plant grows only in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya. As such it is a rare species. The civil society of the area had taken a pro-active stand to approach the Union Minister of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to save their habitat from the mining mafia. It is expected that the Ministry will respond by sending a surveillance team to examine the problem on the ground. The DC would have been the first to be questioned had he not taken action against mining that violates the basic rights of people.
The Forest Act has been violated with impunity in Meghalaya. Last December just before the elections the Government amended its Forest Regulation Act, 1973 and said only a “compact and continuous tract of minimum four hectares” will now be considered as forest in the state. The government claims that the amendment is to provide clarity to the unclear definition of forest. Civil society is aware that the new definition will open up large tracts of forest land for non-forest use.
The new definition specifies that an area should have more than 250 naturally growing trees with a girth size of 15 cm or more per hectare (ha) to be regarded as forest. In case of a bamboo dominant patch, more than 100 naturally growing clumps should be present per ha. In case of mixed vegetation, the number changes to 150 trees and over 40 bamboo clumps. In December 1996, the apex court passed a landmark judgement, reinterpreting the definition of forest under the Forest Conservation Act of 1980. The definition not only includes forests mentioned in government records but “all areas that are forests as per the dictionary meaning of the term irrespective of the nature of ownership and classification”. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a forest is “a large area covered chiefly with trees and undergrowth”. There is no demarcation in terms of area or number of trees in the dictionary meaning.
The state government says the definition was decided after consultations with all the three Autonomous District Councils (ADCs)-Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills-who are responsible for forest management in the State. The Khasi and Jaintia ADCs already have a definition of forest under the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (Management and Control of Forests) Act of 1958, which says forest is an area with “reasonable” number of trees, not less than 62 per ha. The new definition has quadrupled this requirement but forgets that there is no contiguous stretch of land as has been redefined in the new Act. Governments in Meghalaya have always taken shelter in the land holding pattern here which is largely private. But experts feel there are enough provisions in the Constitution to rein in greedy miners. The principle of Common Property Resource which means that resources belonging to the community should be conserved has not been applied in Meghalaya. The DC JOwai has led the way. Others must follow suit.