Odisha tribal villages reject compensatory afforestation committees, call it violation of Forest Rights Act

By A Representative
Emboldened by a major victory in the Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha, where the Dongria Kondh tribals’ sustained campaign forced the multinational company Vedanta to withdraw its proposed plan to mine bauxite for its aluminium refinery, the forest dwellers of the state have begun rejecting the state government efforts to “impose” Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) with the help of compensatory afforestation funds, coming from Government of India.
While the Odisha government claims to have set up 12,500 JFMCs under the Ama Jungle Yojana (AJY) in order to “promote” compensatory afforestation, the forest dwellers of Bolangir district have given a blow to the Forest Department by calling Gram Sabhas under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 calling these JFMCs as “illegal”.
Four villages, Gulmi, Satbohani, Gudguda and Siajhundangi in Titlagarh block of Bolangir district, recently called special Gram Sabhas using Section 6 of FRA, 2006, and dissolved JFMCs. In Sialjhundangi, where the Gram Sabha was called on July 30, the forest dwellers passed a resolution to take under its winds 2,500 acres, surrounding the village, calling it “common resource.”
Sending them to district and state government officials, the resolutions condemned the Forest Department for its “illegal” attempt to reform JFMCs under AJY. The state government wants to popularise all its schemes using “aamo”, “mo” but the main target of the AJY is to form JFMC in villages and to spend money in the name of plantation and forest protection, they add.
Being set up with Central money, including a loan of Rs 1,509.50 crore from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), JFMCs, say local civil rights organizations, are contrary to the spirit of contradictory to the spirit of FRA, 2006, which, they say, seeks to “undo the historical injustice done with forest dwellers of the country, superseding existing forest, wildlife and non-timber forest products (NTFP) and panchayat laws.”
FRA, 2006, the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), Odisha, says, empowers the Gram Sabhas/forest dwellers to form independent Forest Protection and Management Committees (FP&MCs), exclusively taking their own members, as against the JFMCs, in which forester/forest guard is the ex-officio secretary, who maintains and controls accounts/Gram Sabha register etc.
CSD says, “FRA, 2006 recognises traditional ways of forest protection and management contradicting the existing ‘scientific’ forest management on which the whole system of forest protection and management stands and controlled by forest bureaucracy since the colonial period.”
The whole effort of forming JMFCs, claims CSD in a note, is to ensure that Forest Department officials dominate Gram Sabhas, allowing them to “misappropriate funds” given by the Centre “in the name of forest/wildlife protection, forest regeneration/plantation and management, etc.”, and also “cut” and “sell” trees hand in glove with the timber/wild life mafia.
Under compensatory afforestation (CAMPA), the Government of India has allocated Rs 42,000 crore for the country as a whole, all of it, alleges CSD, is sought to be used to “divert forest land”. Not without reason, it adds, the BJP government in the Centre passed on July 28 in Parliament CAMPA Bill, 2016 with the aim of “bypassing” tribal Gram Sabhas.
Ironically, despite opposition by CSD and some other civil rights organizations, some NGOs are engaged in mobilising forest dwellers to implement AJY in villages. Condemning this, CSD calls these NGOs “money-minded” who have lost their “moral responsibility towards the tribals and society at large and got involved in AJY by forming anti-FRA JFMCs.

Comments

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

The curious case of multiple entries of a female voter of Maharashtra: What ECI's online voter records reveal

By Venkatesh Nayak* Cyberspace is agog with data, names and documents which question the reliability of the electoral rolls prepared by the electoral bureaucracy in Maharashtra prior to the General Elections conducted in 2024. One such example of deep dive probing has brought to the surface, the name of one female voter in the 132-Nalasopara (Gen) Vidhan Sabha Constituency in Maharashtra. Nalasopara is part of the Palghar (ST) Lok Sabha constituency. This media report claims that this individual's name figures multiple times in the voter list of the same constituency.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi* This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman* Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Morbi’s ceramic workers face silicosis epidemic, 92% denied legal health benefits: PTRC study

By Rajiv Shah A new study by the Gujarat-based health rights organisation, Peoples Training and Research Centre (PTRC), warns that most workers in Morbi district’s ceramic industry—which produces 90% of India’s ceramic output—are at high risk of contracting silicosis, a deadly occupational disease.

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

Bangladesh alternative more vital for NE India than Kaladan project in Myanmar

By Mehjabin Bhanu* There has been a recent surge in the number of Chin refugees entering Mizoram from the adjacent nation as a result of airstrikes by the Myanmar Army on ethnic insurgents and intense fighting along the border between India and Myanmar. Uncertainty has surrounded India's Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport project, which uses Sittwe port in Myanmar, due to the recent outbreak of hostilities along the Mizoram-Myanmar border. Construction on the road portion of the Kaladan project, which runs from Paletwa in Myanmar to Zorinpui in Mizoram, was resumed thanks to the time of relative calm during the intermittent period. However, recent unrest has increased concerns about missing the revised commissioning goal dates. The project's goal is to link northeastern states with the rest of India via an alternate route, using the Sittwe port in Myanmar. In addition to this route, India can also connect the region with the rest of India through Assam by using the Chittagon...

Search This Blog