Recognition of Forests Rights Bill sparks controversy in India

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http://bigcatrescue.blogspot.com/2006/12/forest-law-brings-hope-danger-for.html

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Forest law brings hope, danger for India's tigers

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NEW DELHI - A new law giving rights to millions of poor Indian forest

dwellers has provoked debate among conservationists who disagree over

whether it will help save or further threaten the nation's dwindling tiger

numbers.

 

The Recognition of Forest Rights Bill 2006 -- approved by lawmakers on

Monday -- granted some of India's most impoverished and marginalised

communities the right to own and live off resource-rich forest areas for the

first time.

 

But while some wildlife groups say it will help efforts to save endangered

tigers by making forest dwellers more accountable, others fear it will lead

to more big cat poaching.

 

" Entire forest village communities will actually now ensure that no one in

their community is involved in poaching and other illegal activities as they

could all face penalties, " Nitin Sethi of the Centre of Science and

Environment think-tank said on Thursday.

 

Allowing forest dwellers to legally use and sell minor non-timber produce

such as bamboo, honey, wax, fish and medicinal plants and herbs, would also

help, he said.

 

But others argued the law would give rights to " encroachers " recently

settled in forests and not just to those living there for at least three

generations as the bill specified.

 

" How do you prove your family was there for generations? " said Tito Joseph

of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

 

" Lots of people will take advantage of this and our fear is that more people

will mean more poaching and more destruction of the natural habitat of

wildlife such as tigers, " he added.

 

India is home to half the world's surviving tigers, but experts say it is

losing the battle to save the big cats, citing poaching by some of the

300,000 people living in the country's 28 tiger reserves as one of the main

causes.

 

Most eke out a meagre living by cutting down trees to sell for firewood,

collecting honey, picking fruit and simple farming. But some are also paid

by criminal gangs to lay traps, poison water sources and electrocute tigers.

 

 

Environmentalists say poor forest dwellers are paid an average of US$5 for

each tiger killed, while a single skin is sold on the international market

for up to US$20,000.

 

There were about 40,000 tigers in India a century ago, but decades of

poaching and depletion of their natural habitat have cut their numbers to

3,700. Some wildlife experts say the total could be as low as 1,200.

 

 

Story by Nita Bhalla

Story 22/12/2006

 

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