Under new Tribal Act, 2 maharashtra villages get community rights to forest ………VIVEK DESHPANDE
IN WHAT is possibly a first in the country, two tribal villages in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district havesuccessfullyclaimedcommunity rights over the forest around their villages under the new tribal Act, The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Right) Act.
Gadchiroli district guardian minister Ramesh Bang, in his Independence Day address, declared the decision in favour of Mendha-Lekha near Dhanora and Marda near Potegaon.
While the Act is known to bestow individual land ownership rights on people living traditionally in forests and having encroached on what is defined as forest land, it also offers virtual ownership of the forest surrounding a village to a village community.
“This is the first such decision in the country and we are extremely happy that the Collector and Bang took active lead in making this a reality,”
said tribal activist Mohan Hirabai Hiralal. From now on, Mendha-Lekha and Marda will have legal rights to manage and utilise about 1,800 and 880 hectares of forests respectively.
said tribal activist Mohan Hirabai Hiralal. From now on, Mendha-Lekha and Marda will have legal rights to manage and utilise about 1,800 and 880 hectares of forests respectively.
Will the government leave the forests to the good sense of the communities which may notalwaysbethecase?”Thatis how forests have traditionally survived,” said Collector Atul Patne. “It is the tribals and traditional forest-dwellers who haveprotectedtheforestwhile outsiders have destroyed it.That’s why the Act seeks to empower them to manage their own forests,” he said.
Mendha-Lekha first hit the headlines more than a decade ago with its Mawa Nate Mawa Raj (We the Government) slogan, declaring itself as a self-determining village implementing its own development programmes while allowing least governmental intervention. It drew strength from provisions of the Panchayati Raj Act. It was also the first village to come out with a bio-diversity register (record of the bio-diversity in the forest around the village) under the Biodiversity Act.
The self-determination movement was led by Devaji Tofa. His daughter Manda and son-in-law Nitin Barsinge have been leading a similar movement in Marda village.
“Under the Tribal Act, there has been a rush to claim individual land when the real tradition of the forest-dwellers has been that of community managementandutilisationof forests. That was also the thrust of the joint forest management (JFM) programme which didn’t make any headway. That the new Act also provides for restoration of that hasn’tdawneduponmany. We pursueditaspertheprovisions and secured it for the two villages,” said Mohan.
The Tribal Act provision allows the village community to have nistar (utilisation) rights like cattlefeed, collection and storage of minor forest produce, resource management and disposal. “This is how forests have been and can be preserved,” said Mohan.
The process of achieving the community right involves preparing a claim in the format given in the Act, turning it over to the village forest rights committee comprising forest and revenue officials along with village representatives, passage of the proposal by the Gram Sabha with two-third majority, sending it to the subdivisional committee led by the SDO and the district-level committee led by the Collector for their okay.
URL: Indian Express, Page No: 1, Date: 17th August, 2009