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

The silencing of conscience: Ideological attacks on India’s judiciary and free thought

By Sunil Kumar* “Volunteers will pick up sticks to remove every obstacle that comes in the way of Sanatan and saints’ work.” — RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat (November 6, 2024, Chitrakoot) Eleven months later, on October 6, 2025, a man who threw a shoe inside the Supreme Court shouted, “India will not tolerate insults to Sanatan.” This incident was not an isolated act but a continuation of a pattern seen over the past decade—attacks on intellectuals, writers, activists, and journalists, sometimes in the name of institutions, sometimes by individual actors or organizations.

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...

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Citizens’ group to recall Justice Chagla’s alarm as India faces ‘undeclared' Emergency

By A Representative In a move likely to raise eyebrows among the powers-that-be, a voluntary organisation founded during the “dark days” of the Indira Gandhi -imposed Emergency has announced that it will hold a public conference in Ahmedabad to highlight what its office-bearers call today’s “undeclared Emergency.”

Celebrating 125 yr old legacy of healthcare work of missionaries

Vilas Shende, director, Mure Memorial Hospital By Moin Qazi* Central India has been one of the most fertile belts for several unique experiments undertaken by missionaries in the field of education and healthcare. The result is a network of several well-known schools, colleges and hospitals that have woven themselves into the social landscape of the region. They have also become a byword for quality and affordable services delivered to all sections of the society. These institutions are characterised by committed and compassionate staff driven by the selfless pursuit of improving the well-being of society. This is the reason why the region has nursed and nurtured so many eminent people who occupy high positions in varied fields across the country as well as beyond. One of the fruits of this legacy is a more than century old iconic hospital that nestles in the heart of Nagpur city. Named as Mure Memorial Hospital after a British warrior who lost his life in a war while defending his cou...

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

World Bank arm accused of hiding crucial report on Gujarat’s Tata Mundra power project

By A Representative The Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) has accused the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the accountability arm of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of concealing crucial evidence related to the Tata Mundra coal power project in Gujarat during the period when the case was being heard in U.S. courts. In a press statement released on October 10, 2025, CFA said that the CAO’s final monitoring report, which was completed in 2019 but released only in September 2025, revealed that IFC had failed to take remedial action for years, even as environmental and livelihood harms to local communities worsened.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Search This Blog