Explainer: What are the proposed amendments to the Forest Conservation Act about?

The essential tension in the FCA is that the state is committed to a principle of increasing forest cover, and this makes it harder to access land for infrastructure projects by States and private entities.
India’s aim is to have at least 33% of India’s geographical area under forest and tree cover, and increasing the latter is a major thrust. So far, forest cover is around 22% and because increasing core forest land is increasingly hard, the mode of expansion includes expanding the notion of what constitutes forest land. (Read More)