In joint communique, State govt. directed to expedite implementation of Forest Rights Act

There is a brand new ray of hope for hundreds of Adivasis and different forest-dwelling tribes within the State on the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 — additionally known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) — which recognises their rights to forest sources for livelihood and different wants.

This follows a joint communique issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs calling for expeditious implementation of the Act by all of the States “in letter and spirit”.

The communique, dated July 6, additionally directs the State Tribal Welfare Department and Forest Department to collectively work out a strategic framework in session with the Department of Rural Development to guarantee extension of advantages beneath the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the National Rural Livelihood Mission to forest dwellers.

The Forest Department has been instructed to take up initiatives for worth chain additions, together with capability constructing of major collectors, promote new harvesting strategies, and storage, processing and advertising of non-timber forest merchandise, beneath schemes applied by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

There is a thrust on initiating agroforestry, horticulture, medicinal plantation and extra beneath varied schemes of the federal government to assist the livelihood of forest rights holders apart from enhancing the forest and tree cowl.

Mixed reactions

Non-governmental organisations engaged on tribal points mentioned the joint communique was an acknowledgement that the implementation of FRA up to now was not solely tardy, but in addition ineffectual.

“This is evident in the joint statement which states that despite considerable lapse of time since the Act came into force, the process of recognition of rights was yet to be completed,” mentioned S. Sreekanth of Development by way of Education (DEED), an NGO engaged on tribal rights and associated points.

He mentioned there may very well be not lower than 70,000 to 80,000 Adivasis in Karnataka and solely about 30,000 of them had utilized for advantages beneath FRA. However, the full quantity of purposes filed beneath the FRA from each Adivasi communities and different conventional forest dwellers may very well be round 2.5 lakh within the State, he added.

But there are different considerations over the event because the Centre has abdicated its accountability by stating that the “State governments are responsible for implementation of the Act and issues related to it need to be resolved at the State level”.

Many rejections

“Our experience when it comes to dealing with the State government does not inspire confidence as a majority of the applications filed under FRA were rejected by the authorities on questionable grounds, which led the Supreme Court to order eviction of such applicants from the forests,” mentioned Mr. Sreekanth.

But subsequently, the order was stayed by the court docket itself and the State was directed to evaluation the purposes and file a report.