00:00On 18th of August, it defined the definition of what constitutes a forest.
00:05And there, in one of the points, it mentions that it needs to be 40% of canopy density.
00:12Now, given the fact that Aravli vegetation only receives very less rainfall,
00:17I mean, around 300 mm, despite the fact that we have Gurugram,
00:22where only even after a little bit of rain, we have all these waterlogging issues and all of that.
00:27But Aravli vegetation, it receives very less rainfall, if you go into the facts.
00:32And then you cannot expect such a density to be able to declare a patch of land as a forest.
00:38Then don't you think that there is an issue here?
00:41Because otherwise, you will go and say, okay, this does not constitute a forest.
00:44And then, so we are able to, you know, take it out.
00:48Absolutely, Hina.
00:48So, you know, there's a lot of opposition to that so-called definition of Punjab and Haryana government.
00:55And right now, this is also where we're looking at, based on that one classification or new so-called definition,
01:03there will be a lot of land grab.
01:04Because forest, when you declare something a forest, that also restrains both government and private leasing of land
01:11or buying of land or construction in the forest area.
01:15And when you suddenly, and that's where, you know, I always say that there are two forms of corruption.
01:20One, indeed, is transactional corruption that we always see, which is where you pay money to break a law.
01:26And the other form of corruption is collusional form of corruption.
01:30When you change the law itself, when you change the definition and you start saying that, oh, well, this is not even a tree,
01:35or this is not even a forest, or perhaps this is not even, you know, a human being in that sense, lightly speaking.
01:45So, indeed, what we've seen is, we've seen the laws, the conservation laws, the forest laws.
01:52Here we see the definition itself is changing.
01:54And that's where, that's the root cause of a lot of disasters that we are actually seeing in our urban areas.
02:00We've seen the same thing in Char Dham Road Project, how without taking an environmental impact assessment,
02:06without doing any environmental impact assessment, that is required for a road more than 100 kilometers.
02:11This was a 900 kilometer road, but was split into 53 pieces,
02:15so that they don't need to take an environmental clearance in that sense.
02:19So, we've seen these shortcuts, a lot of that is done in the name of greater common good.
02:25We actually say, oh, well, this is for public, this road that is being built,
02:29or perhaps this forest that is being cleared.
02:31We don't realize that all of the work that we did, all the damage that we've done in the last 30, 40 years,
02:38is showing up as a result in climate events, the frequency and intensity of it already.
02:44And whatever, if we continue to do this, it's only in the next 20, 30 years that half of Himalayas will be completely gone.
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