Conflict between farmers and Hastinapur wildlife sanctuary
Dr VK Bahuguna
August 6, 2024, 09:18:58
(The writer is former Director-General Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education, MoEF Govt of India)
India is one of the mega bio-diversity countries in the world inspite of having world’s highest human population of more than 144 crore. In our forests we have 104 National Parks, 551 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 131 Marine Protected areas, 18 Biosphere Reserves, 88 Conservation Reserves and 127 Community Reserves comprising over 165,0588 sq km area. No other country can match India both in terms of variety as well as successful conservation of the wild flora and fauna and it goes to the credit of field foresters and the members of Indian Forest Service Officers (IFS) who work under various constraints. Like this year’s budget for the wildlife and forestry research is less in real terms than the last few years.
Having done so well in protecting wildlife we also come across some peculiar situation which are best avoided by the forest officers and the government. The conflict between man and animal is not new in India but today I am going to discuss a peculiar situation relating to Uttar Pradesh’s Hastinapur wildlife sanctuary in the Gangetic plains created in 1986 over 2073 sq km area spread in Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzzafarnagar, Bijnore and Amroha districts. The special feature of this sanctuary is that 58% of its area consists of private agriculture land of more than 50,000 farmers spread over these five districts. The first notification was issued on 30th July 1986. Prior to the 1986 notification this sanctuary did cover only over 42 sq km forest area. The sanctuary was primarily created for the protection of swamp deer and its habitat of Gangetic flood plain on both side of Ganga River between Garhmukteswar and Shukrtal. In this area the tall grassland most of the year remain inundated but short grass land remain dry during winter till the onset of monsoon. Swamp deer like the Swamps and Marshes between the elevated alluvial depositions along the river bed of river Ganga. Swamp deer prefer this habitat and largely confine to these Swamps. The other wildlife found here are Chital, Leopard, Sambher, Nilgai, Ganges Dolphin, smooth-coated otter, and Egyptian Vulture Short-toed Snake Eagle among the bird species.
The UP government on 13th November 1997 realized that it was not possible to acquire such large private agriculture land and directed the Divisional Forest Officer of Meerut to exclude all such private agriculture land from the sanctuary and restrict it to the originally 42 sq km Swamp and Marshy alluvial projections along the bank of river Ganga. When the initial order of 1986 was issued the farmers were neither informed nor consulted and neither did the farmers know about it much. But in 2018 one Gaurav Kumar Bansal filed an application OA 325/2018 in the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The NGT passed an order on Mr Bansal’s application directing the State government of Uttar Pradesh (UP) to keep the sanctuary free from all anthropogenic interference by 30th November 2019 as per the section26(A) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The government of UP then approached the Wildlife Institute of India for rationalization of the boundary of the sanctuary and also decided that farmers rights to cultivate would continue.
However, on 6th February 2023 the UP government without completing the essential steps as per the section 18 to 25 of the Wildlife Act 1972 issued the final order under section 26 of the Act and incorporated 67300 ha of farmers’ agriculture land in the sanctuary involving more than 50,000 farmers in three districts. This constitutes about 58% of the sanctuary area. This decision came as a shock to the farmers in the light of earlier decision of the UP government to not to acquire the farmers land for the purpose of this sanctuary. This decision of the government if not solved may incite the farmers. On the professional front the incorporation of such large agriculture land for this sanctuary is neither necessary considering the habitat requirements of Swamp deer which is sufficiently available for them in 42 sq km area nor administratively feasible to take over/manage the 67500 ha of fragmented farm land. Further, when the 6th February 2023 order under section 26 was issued, it did not make a mention if the farmers’ right to cultivate have been protected and the mandatory requirement under section 18th to 25th was completed. It is because of this the farmers are getting alienated.
If the forest department was finding it expedient to include the private agriculture lands they could have laid a foundation of new kind of cooperation between people and the government where more than 50% of the land in a sanctuary is a private land of 50,000 farmers. One local former IFS officer now a farmer leader Mr VP Singh who had a consortium of more than 3000 farmers for vegetable growing in this area had written a conciliatory letter to the government in November 2023 to amend the order by allowing the farmers to cultivate their lands as usual under section 24(2) (C) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. He also suggested that all the private/agriculture land within the limit of sanctuary be declared as “eco-sensitive zone” prohibiting the activities harmful to wildlife and allowing the beneficial activities if needed by giving the farmers financial and technical assistance. He further argued that rampant use of chemicals in agriculture is also polluting the river Ganga and thus harming the wildlife and the farmers must be encouraged to go for organic farming. This is a professionally sound proposition and must have come after Mr Singh consulted the fellow farmers and can prove to be a wonderful model of people-government cooperation for wildlife conservation. However, yet surprisingly his letter is getting dust in the files of UP forest department. Now the government should either delete the private agriculture land as promised earlier in an official order or accept the farmer leader’s model of management of this sanctuary. The moot point is will the UP forest department rise from the slumber or wait till an agitation is started by the farmers to protect their rights. Hope Yogi Adityanath Chief Minister of UP takes a quick decision to avoid the conflict with farmers.
(Tripurainfo)