The Bill:

(Credit: PRS Legislative Research )'The Bill amends the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 to make it applicable to certain types of land.   These include land notified as a forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 or in government records after the 1980 Act came into effect.  The Act will not be applicable for land converted to non-forest use before December 12, 1996.'

Concerns :

The Bill excludes two categories of land from the purview of the Act: land recorded as forest before October 25, 1980 but not notified as a forest, and land which changed from forest-use to non-forest-use before December 12, 1996.  This provision may go against a 1996 Supreme Court judgement on preventing deforestation.
Exempting land near border areas for national security projects may adversely impact the forest cover and wildlife in north-eastern states. 
A blanket exemption for projects like zoos, eco-tourism facilities, and reconnaissance surveys may adversely affect forest land and wildlife.

This might adversely affect states like Himachal Pradesh , Uttrakhand,  North East, Jammu and kashmir, which are already facing calamities and irregular weather patterns due to climate change , this might further legitimize influential corporations and individuals to carry out with blanketed deforestation under the garb of development for setting up tourists lodges , resorts , and Further construction activities .

What we must instead look for is an all round development which is sustainable and insync with all that is good for our environment (which is already too vulnerable) and fauna ie humans , animals,and other organisms that are directly dependent on it).

We therefore oppose the forest conservation ammendment Bill 2023  in its present shape and structure for it is highly unthoughtful and might prove disastrous for the overall wellbeing of our environment and land.

 *****(incidents like the recent sinking of Joshimath show us how a complete and a distasteful neglect of environment and its vulnerabilities while planning and carrying out development activities ,can cause havoc and trouble in lives of so many )******