Joint statement on Anti-FRA case in SC
In January of this year an application was filed in the Supreme Court in an ongoing case (Wildlife First and Ors. vs. Union of India and Ors.) that seeks to have the Forest Rights Act declared unconstitutional. In their most recent application, the petitioners - Praveen Bhargav of Wildlife First, Kishor Rithe of NCS and Harshvardhan Dhanvatey of TRACT - seek to further restrict the operation of the Act in the name of 'conservation' concerns. This an open letter jointly issued by several conservation NGOs, movements for democratic forest control and experts in conservation biology, against this application and the petition itself.