Skip to main content

Six Odisha gram sabhas "force" govt to allow business in kendu leaves under Forest Rights Act, yet confusion continues

By Our Representative
In what is being considered a partial success by forest rights activists, following the tribals' six months long campaign, half a dozen gram sabhas of Kalahandi district have "forced" the Odisha Forest Department to issue a special circular allowing them to sell kendu leaf (KL) to anyone whom they want as per the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
Even as allowing them to do business on their own, the November 17 notification, issued by the Forest Department, say senior activists, is not clear whether the six gram sabhas can sell their KL stored in their houses collected in May 2017, as Paragraph-7 of the notification talks of the year 2018.
Further, the notification is restricted to six gram sabhas only and wants to restrict the KL collection area involving Forest Range Officer in enumeration of the KL to be collected and sold.
Seeking "immediate revision of the notification", the Odisha chapter of Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which mobilized the tribals and forest dwellers across the country for the enactment of FRA, has said, there is utter confusion on implementing it.
“While the Bhawanipatna Kendu Leaf DFO says that the six gram sabhas cannot sell their KL stored in the houses, Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, Principal Secretary, Forest & Environment Department, Odisha government, says that they can", it noted.
In the last kendu leaf season in May 2017, the gram sabhas of Khainsuguda, Jamugudabahal, Jamjharan, Kasturpadar, Kanakpur, and Kalipur in Kalahandi district coming under Bhawanipatna KL division gathered kendu leaves and decided to take up KL business in their hands, exercising ownership rights recognized under Section 3(1) (c) of Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
They did a business agreement with a Maharashtra merchant and committed to supply 72,000 bundle of KL at Rs 7.50 per bundle (60 leaves) against Rs 2.40 paid by the Odisha government. Accordingly, the merchant paid Rs 3,64,000 as advance out of Rs 5,40,000 payable to the villagers.
However, after knowing the development, the local Forest Department officials obstructed them and threatened the KL businessman. Since then the community people of the six villages were struggling to sell their KL and get justice.
They filed petitions before the District Collector, the Forest Department, the FRA State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC), and even approached the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India.
Jual Oram, Minister of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, on July 3 wrote to Navin Patnaik, Odisha chief minister, to address the issue of the six gram sabhas.
Even the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Development Department, Odisha government, reminded the Forest Department on July 22 that the latter had violated FRA by obstructing gram sabhas and asked it to allow them to do KL business independently.
The leaders of the six gram sabhas met and appraised their plight to Ramesh Chandra Majhi, Odisha SC/ST Development Minister, but he also failed to resolve the issue.
"In between the Forest Department continued to threaten the community people, activists and civil society organization involved in the process”, CSD said, even as joining a protest rally held in Bhubneswar on June 28. On August 13, 2017 it wrote a letter to Naveen Patnaik urging him to allow the six gram sabhas to exercise their ownership rights over KL.
“Since the Forest Department is responsible for the damage of the kendu leaves of the six gram sabhas of Kalahandi district, we demand that the Odisha development government should immediately pay Rs 5,40,000 excluding all expenditures incurred towards storage and maintenance of KL to the six gram sabhas”, CSD said.
It added, “While the Maharashtra government allowed nearly 1,000 of villages in Gadchiroli, Gondia and Amarawati districts to exercise ownership rights over KL allowing them to do direct business, the Odisha government wants to continue its feudal system in the State through KL Corporation.”

Comments

TRENDING

Importance of Bangladesh for India amidst 'growing might' of China in South Asia

By Samara Ashrat*  The basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geographical location. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.  The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between Northeast India and Mainland India. Not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant to both China and the US.

Unlike other revolutionaries, Hindutva icon wrote 5 mercy petitions to British masters

By Shamsul Islam*  The Hindutva icon VD Savarkar of the RSS-BJP rulers of India submitted not one, two,or three but five mercy petitions to the British masters! Savarkarites argue: “There are no evidences to prove that Savarkar collaborated with the British for his release from jail. In fact, his appeal for release was a ruse. He was well aware of the political developments outside and wanted to be part of it. So he kept requesting for his release. But the British authorities did not trust him a bit” (YD Phadke, ‘A complex Hero’, "The Indian Expres"s, August 31, 2004)

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'BBC film shows only tip of iceberg': Sanjiv Bhatt's daughter speaks at top US press club

By Our Representative   The United States' premier journalists' organisation, the National Press Club (NPC), has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recent "attacks on journalists in India." Speaking at the screening of an episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” banned in India, in the club premises, NPC President Eileen O’Reilly said, “Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media."

Chinese pressure? Left stateless, Rohingya crisis result of Myanmar citizenship law

By Dr Shakuntala Bhabani*  A 22-member team of Myanmar immigration officials visited Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar to verify more than 400 Rohingya refugees as part of a pilot repatriation project. Does it hold out any hope for the forcibly displaced people to return to their ancestral homes in the Rakhine state of Myanmar? Only time will tell.

China ties up with India, Bangladesh to repatriate Rohingyas; Myanmar unwilling

By Harunur Rasid*  We now have a new hope, thanks to news reports that were published in the Bangladeshi dailies recently. Myanmar has suddenly taken initiatives to repatriate Rohingyas. As part of this initiative, diplomats from eight countries posted in Yangon were flown to Rakhine last week. Among them were diplomats from Bangladesh, India and China.

40,000 Odisha adolescent girls ask CM: Why is scheme to fight malnutrition on paper?

By Our Representative  In unique a postcard campaign to combat malnutrition, aimed at providing dietary diversity, considered crucial during adolescence, especially among girls, signed by about 40,000 adolescent girls from over 10,000 villages, have reminded Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik that his government's Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG), which converged with Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman  ( POSHAN ) 2.0 in 2021, is not being implemented in the State.

Natural farming: Hamirpur leads the way to 'huge improvement' in nutrition, livelihood

By Bharat Dogra*  Santosh is a dedicated farmer who along with his wife Chunni Devi worked very hard in recent months to convert a small patch of unproductive land into a lush green, multi-layer vegetable garden. This has ensured year-round supply of organically grown vegetables to his family as well as fetched several thousand rupees in cash sales.

Over-stressed? As Naveen Patnaik turns frail, Odisha 'moves closer' to leadership crisis

By Sudhansu R Das  Not a single leader in Odisha is visible in the horizon who can replace Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He has ruled Odisha for nearly two and half decades. His father, Biju Patnaik, had built Odisha; he was a daring pilot who saved the life of Indonesia’s Prime Minister Sjahrir and President Sukarno when the Dutch army blocked their exit.