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Over 90 Former Civil Servants Oppose ‘Green Credit Rules’ Making Corporate Access to Forests Easy

The Union environment ministry issued a notification last month saying corporations and other private entities can take up plantations on forest land.
The Union environment ministry issued a notification last month saying corporations and other private entities can take up plantations on forest land

A group of 91 former civil servants on Tuesday wrote an open letter opposing the Green Credit Rules issued by the union government on February 22, saying the government is trying to make it easy for entrepreneurs and industrialists to acquire forests. Green Credit Rules were issued on February 22. 

“The scheme’s shortcomings are obvious. No amount of money can be a substitute for the land required for our forests, and for our biodiversity and wildlife to thrive. Yet the government is trying to make it easy for entrepreneurs and industrialists to acquire forest land by permitting them to offer, in exchange, money (in the form of green credits), instead of land for land as was the case so far,” said the former civil servants under the banner Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a group that ensures the upholding of the Constitution

The CCG added that, when entrepreneurs can easily obtain forest land, it does not take much imagination to realise that the extent of land legally classified as forests will steadily shrink until there is virtually nothing left. “A new set of Green Credit invaders may ask for diversion of some of our densest and best-protected forests for commercial purposes like mining, industry, and infrastructure,” the CCG said in the open letter.

The Union environment ministry issued a notification last month saying corporations and other private entities can take up plantations on degraded land, including open forest and scrubland, wasteland, and catchment areas, under the administrative control of states to help generate green credits. The credits can be traded and used as a leadership indicator under corporate social responsibility.

State forest departments are required to identify all sparsely covered forest lands within their jurisdiction to be offered to private agencies/investors for funding to support plantations. The forest department has to complete afforestation within two years after receiving money from investors.

CCG said the government seems to have issued the rules in the belief that plantations absorb more carbon than natural scrublands. “This is not true. Plantations are usually fast-growing monocultures and it is a scientifically proven fact that they are poor at carbon sequestration when compared to natural ecosystems. Compensatory afforestation plantations already undertaken in our country are known to have dubious success rates.”

GCC underlined the importance of recognising that green credits as a concept is anachronistic. It added the idea has been seen as a tool for monetising the natural environment and handing it over to corporates for exploitation.

“To allow transfer of pristine forest lands to corporates, in exchange for green credits earned by them, by getting them to fund the forest department to plant degraded forest lands, is shocking indeed. More so, because the ecological values of these lands can be restored by the forest department itself, with the funds already at its disposal. This is a transaction weighted heavily in favour of Big Capital,” the CCG said.

In July 2023, CCG wrote another open letter critiquing the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, which allows the diversion of forests for defence/security infrastructure.

Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy led (climate and ecosystems) Debadityo Sinha last month said the rules are unscientific and completely ignore the ecological aspects of forests. “Referring to open forests, scrubland, and catchment areas as ‘degraded’ land parcels is vague… incentivising industrial-scale plantations in such areas will irreversibly alter soil quality, replace local biodiversity, and might be disastrous for local ecosystem services.”

The entire text of the communication may be read here:

CCG OPEN LETTER TO UNION MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, FORESTS & CLIMATE CHANGE ON GREEN CREDITS

March 19, 2024

To

Union Minister for Environment, Forests & Climate Change

Government of India

Hon’ble Minister,

The assault on India’s forests seems continual and unrelenting! The recently passed Forest Conservation Amendment Act 2023 which allows diversion of forests for defence/security infrastructure, feeder roads for road and rail-side establishments, surveys for coal, diamonds, etc. without any oversight of the central government, expert committees or scientists, as stipulated in the past, is a disaster and we in the Constitutional Conduct Group had written an earlier open letter on 12 July 2023 criticising this. The government has now come up with certain rules that will further worsen the disaster: the provision for earning Green Credits by agencies seeking to take possession of forest lands for “developmental” projects.

We are a group of former civil servants who have served the Central and State governments in various capacities. We have no affiliation with any political party but feel strongly about upholding the provisions of the country’s Constitution. It, therefore, disturbs us greatly to find that the responsibility that is enjoined on every citizen under Article 51A (g) of the Constitution, ‘to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife . . . ’, is disregarded and violated by the government.

Many people would be aware of the significant efforts made over the years to save the forests of India, especially through the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and Supreme Court orders. During the period from Independence to the enactment of the Forest Conservation Act 1980, some 4.2 million hectares of forests had been converted to other uses such as real estate, infrastructure, mines, etc.  After the 1980 Act, diversion of forest land, from 1980 until recently, was reduced to approximately 1.5 million hectares, as any diversion needed to be first approved by the central government. Protection of forests was further strengthened by the Supreme Court judgement in 1996, commonly called the Godavarman case, which recognised forests as per the dictionary meaning. It also brought under the oversight of the central government forested areas with other agencies like the revenue department, the railways, and private owners. It is widely accepted that these two actions have saved the forests of India from decimation. It pains us to see that the government is now undoing the good that was done. And that this is being done when the whole planet faces the crises of climate change and global warming.

The Forest Conservation Act 1980 brought in checks and balances over diversion of forest lands keeping in mind the ecological importance of our forests and biodiversity and their role in the sustenance of people. That Act recognized that when it was inevitable to divert forests for any human centric development activity, an equal area of land outside forests needed to be obtained by the user agency and given to the forest department for afforestation (called compensatory afforestation), so as to ensure that the area of forest land in the country does not get reduced.

However, this paradigm is set to change with the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MOEFCC) bringing in the Green Credit Initiative in October 2023 and the Green Credit Rules on 22 February 2024. These Rules require state forest departments to identify all sparsely covered ‘forest’ lands within their jurisdiction. These lands will then be offered to private agencies/investors for funding to support planting. On payment of the funds by the investor, the forest department will complete afforestation within two years. For each tree planted, the investor earns one green credit. These green credits can then be traded by the investor for diversion of forest lands for non-forestry activities.

The scheme’s shortcomings are obvious. No amount of money can be a substitute for the land required for our forests, and for our biodiversity and wildlife to thrive. Yet the government is trying to make it easy for entrepreneurs and industrialists to acquire forest land by permitting them to offer, in exchange, money (in the form of green credits), instead of land for land as was the case so far.  When forest land can be so easily obtained by private entrepreneurs, it does not take much imagination to realise that the extent of land legally classified as forests at present will steadily shrink until there is virtually nothing left. A new set of Green Credit invaders may ask for diversion of some of our densest and best protected forests for commercial purposes like mining, industry and infrastructure.

According to foresters and environmentalists, a dangerous fallout of this order is the ecological disaster that will follow by planting up all kinds of ecosystems with trees. Measuring forests merely by tree count is totally wrong. All forest lands, whether grasslands, wetlands, deserts, scrub forests or open forests are ecological entities in themselves. They harbour a wide variety of animal species endemic to the Indian subcontinent, such as the Great Indian Bustard, the Lesser Florican, blackbucks, wolves, etc. Taking up plantations in these areas will mean an end to the survival of these and other species.

But it is not merely the lives of animal species that is at stake. The livelihood of millions of pastoral and semi-pastoral communities depend on these ‘scrub’ and ‘waste lands’, and they will be directly and adversely impacted by this scheme.

The government has issued these orders, ostensibly in the belief that plantations absorb more carbon than natural scrublands. This is not true. Plantations are usually fast-growing monocultures and it is a scientifically proven fact that they are poor at carbon sequestration when compared to natural ecosystems. Compensatory afforestation plantations already undertaken in our country are known to have dubious success rates. At any rate, the government also has huge unspent funds for such afforestation programmes and does not need further investment from any private agency. It would be a much better plan to merely protect and restore these degraded lands to their original condition. This would result in more carbon sequestration, survival of varied ecosystems and endangered species, and would also serve the needs of people. This would not, however, benefit the private sector at the cost of the community and the country at large.

That such an unscientific order should be issued from the MOEFCC is truly unfortunate, considering that it has in its fold the highly trained, technical Indian Forest Service. It is not only contrary to this service’s mandate of protecting forests and wildlife but also negates the unswerving commitment of its officers to preserve and protect the environment.

It is also important to recognise that ‘green credits’ as a concept is anachronistic, and has been seen as a tool for monetising the natural environment and handing it over to corporates for exploitation.   To allow transfer of pristine forest lands to corporates, in exchange for green credits earned by them, by getting them to fund the forest department to plant degraded forest lands, is shocking indeed. More so, because the ecological values of these lands can be restored by the forest department itself, with the funds already at its disposal. This is a transaction weighted heavily in favour of Big Capital. If the government is really serious about conservation with financial help from the private sector, it should permit relevant, impactful conservation projects as eligible activities under the law governing Corporate Social Responsibility.

Quick, smooth and easy diversion of our forest lands in favour of user agencies is apparently the sole intention of this set of Green Credit rules. We urge the MOEFCC to recognize this danger and withdraw the Green Credits notification expeditiously.

SATYAMEVA JAYATE

Yours faithfully,

Constitutional Conduct Group (91 signatories, as below)

  Anita Agnihotri IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI
  Anand Arni RAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI
  J.L. Bajaj IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Administrative Reforms and Decentralisation Commission, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh
  G. Balachandhran IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
  Vappala Balachandran  IPS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI
  Gopalan Balagopal  IAS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
  Chandrashekar Balakrishnan  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Coal, GoI
  Sharad Behar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
  Aurobindo Behera IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha
  Madhu Bhaduri IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Portugal
  Pradip Bhattacharya IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Development & Planning and Administrative Training Institute, Govt. of West Bengal
  Nutan Guha Biswas IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Police Complaints Authority, Govt. of NCT of Delhi
  Ravi Budhiraja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI
  Sundar Burra  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
  R. Chandramohan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi
  Ranjan Chatterjee IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Meghalaya & former Expert Member, National Green Tribunal
  Kalyani Chaudhuri  IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
  Gurjit Singh Cheema IAS (Retd.) Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab
  F.T.R. Colaso IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir
  Anna Dani  IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
  Vibha Puri Das  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI
  P.R. Dasgupta IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI
  Pradeep K. Deb IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI
  Nitin Desai   Former Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI
  M.G. Devasahayam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana
  Sushil Dubey  IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Sweden
  A.S. Dulat IPS (Retd.) Former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office, GoI
  K.P. Fabian  IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Italy
  Prabhu Ghate IAS (Retd.) Former Addl. Director General, Department of Tourism, GoI
  Suresh K. Goel IFS (Retd.) Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI
  S.K. Guha IAS (Retd.) Former Joint Secretary, Department of Women & Child Development, GoI
  H.S. Gujral IFoS (Retd.) Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab
  Meena Gupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI
  Wajahat Habibullah  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, GoI and former Chief Information Commissioner
  Vivek Harinarain  IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Tamil Nadu
  Kamal Jaswal  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI
  Naini Jeyaseelan  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI
  Najeeb Jung IAS (Retd.) Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi
  Gita Kripalani IRS (Retd.) Former Member, Settlement Commission, GoI
  Ish Kumar IPS (Retd.) Former DGP (Vigilance & Enforcement), Govt. of Telangana and former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission
  Sudhir Kumar IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal
  Subodh Lal IPoS (Resigned) Former Deputy Director General, Ministry of Communications, GoI
  Harsh Mander  IAS (Retd.) Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
  Amitabh Mathur IPS (Retd.) Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI
  Aditi Mehta IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan
  Sonalini Mirchandani  IFS (Resigned) GoI
  Malay Mishra IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Hungary
  Satya Narayan Mohanty IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission
  Deb Mukharji  IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal
  Shiv Shankar Mukherjee IFS (Retd.) Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
  Gautam Mukhopadhaya IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Myanmar
  Nagalsamy  IA&AS (Retd.) Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & Kerala
  Sobha Nambisan  IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka
  Ramesh Narayanaswami IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of NCT of Delhi
  Surendra Nath IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Finance Commission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh
  P. Joy Oommen IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh
  Amitabha Pande  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI
  Maxwell Pereira IPS (Retd.) Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi
  R. Poornalingam IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoI
  Rajesh Prasad IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to the Netherlands
  R.M. Premkumar IAS (Retd.) Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra
  Rajdeep Puri IRS (Resigned) Former Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI
  N.K. Raghupathy  IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI
  V.P. Raja IAS (Retd.) Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission
  V. Ramani IAS (Retd.) Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra
  K. Sujatha Rao IAS (Retd.) Former Health Secretary, GoI
  M.Y. Rao  IAS (Retd.)  
  Satwant Reddy  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI
  Vijaya Latha Reddy IFS (Retd.) Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI
  Julio Ribeiro  IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Punjab
  Aruna Roy  IAS (Resigned)  
  Manabendra N. Roy  IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal
  A.K. Samanta IPS (Retd.) Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal
  Deepak Sanan IAS (Retd.) Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh
  G.V. Venugopala Sarma IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha 
  S. Satyabhama IAS (Retd.) Former Chairperson, National Seeds Corporation, GoI
  N.C. Saxena  IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI
  A. Selvaraj  IRS (Retd.) Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoI
  Abhijit Sengupta IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI
  Aftab Seth  IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Japan
  Ashok Kumar Sharma IFoS (Retd.) Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat
  Ashok Kumar Sharma IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia
  Navrekha Sharma  IFS (Retd.) Former Ambassador to Indonesia
  Raju Sharma  IAS (Retd.) Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh
  Avay Shukla IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary (Forests & Technical Education), Govt. of Himachal Pradesh
  Tara Ajai Singh IAS (Retd.) Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka
  A.K. Srivastava IAS (Retd.) Former Administrative Member, Madhya Pradesh Administrative Tribunal
  Prakriti Srivastava IFoS (Retd.) Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & Special Officer, Rebuild Kerala Development Programme, Govt. of Kerala  
  Parveen Talha IRS (Retd.) Former Member, Union Public Service Commission
  Anup Thakur IAS (Retd.) Former Member, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission
  P.S.S. Thomas IAS (Retd.) Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission
Courtesy: sabrang India

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