Planters upset over Kerala govt ordinance on forests

Our Commodities Bureau

Kochi, Oct 14: The move of the Kerala government to introduce a Bill to give effect to the Kerala Forests (Vesting and Management of ecologically Fragile Lands) Ordinance may add to the crisis in the plantation sector, according to the Association of Kerala Planters.

In a statement here, the Association says that under the Ordinance, all ecologically fragile lands were to vest in the government and such ecologically fragile lands were to include lands recorded as forests in government records.

AKP felt that the definition of ‘ecologically fragile lands’ had far-reaching consequences and was capable of being interpreted as to include such lands as were not intended to be brought within the purview of the Ordinance.

As per Section 4 of the draft, any land could be declared as ecologically fragile irrespective of whether it was a plantation or not. Exemption would be granted only to lands cultivated with coffee and cardamom. The Ordinance was first promulgated on June 1, 2000 and since the Bill to replace it by an Act was not introduced in the Assembly, the Ordinance was repromulgated on July 27, 2000.

However, there was widespread resentment and the Government decided to constitute a committee of ministers to look into complaints. On January 26, 2001, the Governor promulgated another Ordinance whereby provisions were made to provide for payment of compensation for the land vested and also compensation for the permanent improvements thereon. Even this Ordinance was re-promulgated on March 13, 2001 and it lapsed by mid-July as it was not adopted by the Assembly. However, moves are afoot to bring in a Bill, AKP said in a statement.

Already the plantation sector in the State was beset with severe crisis owing to the steep fall in the prices of tea, coffee, and natural rubber coupled with a high cost of production, much higher than the prices realised by the grower.

Many a plantation had been forced to close down on account of unviability, it said. If the government went ahead with vesting land to itself, there would be rise in unemployment ‘in perhaps the only sector which provides round-the-year.employment in the
backward and hilly areas of the State’.