The World Bank sponsored Community Led Landscape Management Project (CLLMP), a state government program held a workshop to deliberate on the issues, challenges and strategies for mainstreaming the CLLMP model in all the villages in Meghalaya and to discuss the wider implementation of working schemes in the state by its convergence with the Forest Management Plans being prepared under the CLLMP.
However, the CLLMP model has come up short against the three tiered system of governance, Central-State- Sixth Schedule (District Councils which are often in conflict with each other, particularly in the field of management of forests and land. Thus the need for such an exercise which brought together the senior officials from the state forest and environment department, the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs), soil and water conservation department, regional office of the ministry of Environment and Climate Change of India, World Bank, legal practitioners and others to deliberate on the matter.
Over the years many attempts have been made to ‘streamline and bring convergence’ in the laws governing forests and land, but so far it has proved to be a challenge for any entity to cut through the legal tangle to balance “development” with the tribal aspiration for autonomy and self rule, the latter a constitutional mandate.
Apart from the forest and environment laws at the Union level which are applicable to the state, there are many laws at the state level for forest and natural resource management (NRM) such as the Meghalaya Forest Regulation Act, 1973, The Meghalaya Tree Preservation Act, 1976, Meghalaya Forest (Removal of Timber) Regulation Act 1981, Meghalaya Protection of Catchment Areas Act, 1990 and others. But the officials present at the meeting including the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) B K Lyngwa vouched for the fact that these could not be implemented due to lack of support at the local level. But he said that the urgent need now is to bring “scientific management of forests in the district council areas.”
On the other hand the three Autonomous District Councils of Garo Hills (GHADC), Khasi Hills (KHADC) and Jaiñtia Hills (JHADC) had their own Laws enacted since they were formed, such as the United Khasi-Jaiñtia Autonomous District (Management and Control of Forest) Act, 1958, The Garo Hills (JHUM) Regulation Act, 1954, The Garo Hills District (Forest) Act, 1958, The United Khasi-Jaiñtia Hills District Fisheries Act, 1954.
CLLMP said that they had already held workshops in the tree autonomous districts in April 2021 which were attended by the Nokmas, Syiems, Dolois, village elders, teachers, journalists, women, youth and departments of the ADCs. CLLMP further said that these stakeholder consultations had “revealed that there were many provisions of NRM laws which are no more relevant or redundant in the current context. Also many of the acts and rules of the state and the ADCs are in conflict with each other which need to be streamlined. This month was interspersed with Covid-19 lockdowns, so who this was managed was not explained by the organizers.
Having served the state for decades, IAS Rebecca Suchiang, who has newly taken over as the chief secretary minced no words about the difficulty of getting this done. “The issue of legal alignment is a complex and challenging one,” she said. The state has authority over only about 5 per cent of the forest area while the rest is under the jurisdiction of the ADCs which has put the state forest in a “peculiar position” requiring sensitive coordination to implement the forest Laws of the country.
She pointed to the Meghalaya Forest Authority Act, 1991 with the main function to “advice the state on proper coordination. “This could not be carried out,” she said, bringing to the fore the challenge ahead for the CLLMP’s plans to apply its forest model in all the villages of the state.
Suchiang said that what is needed is to formalize whatever coordination there exists, create partnerships with the stakeholders, have shared goals and liberalize financial assistance channels. She said that it is of paramount importance to do this to get multilateral funding for the communities and the ADCs.
The director of the Centre of Excellence on Natural Resource Management, Dr Subash Ashutosh, retired IFS official, said that Meghalaya which is 80 per cent dependent on its natural resources should take up Climate friendly green policies urgently.
Sampath Kumar, Principal Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA) gave a view of the work done by MBDA and CLLMP in the villages. He said that the new policy now is to have a NRM committee within the Village Employment Council (VEC), creating Community Conservation Corps of young people, bringing digital technology savvy to the youth.
He said that the comprehensive proposal is to bring “legal framework to manage natural resources.”
