Why India’s climate pledge may affect land rights of forest dwellers

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Editor's note: This week’s edition of Thirty-Six is about an unintended consequence of India’s battle against climate change. It may appear counterintuitive to the uninitiated, but is still true. Some climate change mitigation measures implemented by the government to comply with the country’s international climate commitments cause an injustice to forest-dependent communities, according to a new study by independent researchers Shruti Agarwal and Tushar Dash, who analysed India’s climate change mitigation plans for the forestry sector. The climate change mitigation measures that the study predominantly refers to are afforestation and  reforestation programmes undertaken by the government in compliance with its commitment of creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. Carbon sinks , as the name suggests, are reservoirs for storing carbon. Forests and oceans are the best-known examples. They offset, to some extent, the emissions caused by industry and other polluting activities. As a strategy of meeting its Nationally Determined Contribution, or NDC, of creating a carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent …