The new Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 notified by the Central Government have ruffled a lot of feathers. Exclusion of the role of Gram Sabha in the new set of rules has put a question mark over the say of forest dwelling communities in respect of non-liner, non-forestry projects that require large-scale forest diversion. Defenders of the rights of forest dwelling communities and traditional forest dwellers have expressed apprehension that omission of obtaining Gram Sabha's consent for diversion of forest for any project in a forest area under its jurisdiction could deprive them from rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. The Central Government describes the new rules to be "reformative" with an objective to streamline the process of approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and claims it will enable the parallel processing under other Acts and Rules including FRA, 2006. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Rules, 2016 stipulates that the District Collector shall complete the process of recognition and vesting of forest rights in accordance with the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (popularly known as FRA, 2006) for the entire forest land indicated in the proposal; obtain consent of each Gram Sabha having jurisdiction over the whole or a part of the forest land indicated in the proposal for the diversion of such forest land and compensatory and ameliorative measures, if any, having understood the purposes and details of diversion, wherever required; and forward his findings in this regard to the Conservator of Forests. The 2016 Rules also say that the entire process shall be completed by the District Collector within the time period stipulated for grant of in-principle approval under the Act to the proposal and the Conservator of Forests shall examine the factual details and feasibility of the proposal, carry out site inspection in case the area of forest land proposed to be diverted is more than forty hectares, and forward the proposal along with his recommendations to the Nodal Officer. According to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the FRA, 2006 empowers the forest dwellers to access and use the forest resources in the manner that they were traditionally accustomed, to protect, conserve and manage forests, protect forest dwellers from unlawful evictions and also provides for basic development facilities for the community of forest dwellers to access facilities of education, health, nutrition, infrastructure etc. The Act also protects the tribal and other traditional forest dwellers from eviction without rehabilitation and settlement. The Central Government has rejected opposition allegation that new rules will disempower the forest dwelling communities. It argues that the State Government or Union territory administration, as the case may be, after receiving the 'final' approval of the Central Government under Section 2 of the Act, and after fulfilment and compliance of the provisions of all other Acts and rules made thereunder, as applicable including ensuring settlement of rights FRA, 2006 shall issue order for diversion,assignment of lease or dereservation, as the case may be. This clearly marks a departure from previous rules which made it mandatory for obtaining approval of the Gram Sabha before granting "in-principle" approval. Besides, the new rules say that except the proposals related to dereservation and mining involving forest land of more than 5 hectares, regularization of encroachment and violation of the provisions of the Act, all other proposals related to linear projects, forest land up to forty hectares and use of forest land having canopy density up to 0.7, irrespective of their extent for the purpose of survey, shall be examined in the Integrated Regional Office. The Central Government's clarification says that the State Government or Union Territory "may" ensure compliance of the FRA, 2006 at the initial or at any stage as Forest Conservation Rules 2022 does not bar the authorities to do so but in any case, it should be before handing over forest land to user agency. Use of the word "may" leaves the room for interpretation that the compliance of the FRA 2006 is not binding on the State Government or the Union Territory. Clamour for more clarity in the Rules may grow louder when these are taken up by the parliament for approval in the current session. The new rules have wide ramification for the north-eastern region with huge forest dwelling population and having lost over 3600 sq. km of forest over the past one decade as many infrastructure and development projects have been pushed. Global warming and climate change impacts have brought the debate whether the ease of doing business should get precedence over forest conservation to the centre stage of policy discourse on natural resource governance. Striking a balance requires recognizing the role of communities, more particularly, forest dwelling communities in forest conservation and mitigating climate change impact.