1.29 lakh forest land claims rejected in Odisha, gram sabhas being disempowered: CSD tells Central tribal team

By A Representative
Members of the Campaign For Survival and Dignity (CSD), Odisha, a forest rights organization, have told Nanda Kumar Sai, chairperson of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), Government of India, that, contrary to huge propaganda by the state government, about 1.29 lakh out of a total of 6.05 lakh individual forest rights (IFR) claims have been rejected in Odisha.
Briefing him at the Odisha State Guest House, and giving him details of violations of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, and the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), 1996 during his four days visit to Odisha, they particularly raising the issue of "disempowerment of FRA gram sabhas", alleging that in the "whole FRA implementation process, there has been consistent and systematic bypassing of the empowered FRA gram sabhas by Odisha government officials."
Those who accompanied Sai included Anusuiya Uikey, vice- chairperson, and members Hari Krishna Damor and Harshadbhai Chunilal Vasava. They were in Odisha since January 16 to hear allegations of violation of tribal rights in the state. NCST was formed under Article 338-A of the Constitution, which gives special protection to tribal rights across the country.
In its petition submitted to the NCST team, CSD said, while the Government of Odisha claims to be No.1 in issuing highest number of IFR titles in comparison to other states, the the ground realities are different.
Appraising NCST of the "realities" as seen by it, it said, “The state government has issued title papers to the tribals. Yet, though ten years of FRA implementation have passed, it has failed to demarcate most of the forest land issued under IFR and community forest rights (CFR)."
It pointed out that rejection of IFR claims of both scheduled tribes (STs) and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs). It is to be noted that as per the latest FRA report of November 30, 2017, 1,28,868 IFR claims (1,23,417 of STs and 25,451 of OTFDs) have been rejected out of a total 6,05,588 (5,75,070 of STs and 30,516 of OTFDs)."
Apprising the NCST of poor recognition of community rights in the state and how obstructions were being created by the state forest department in the way of FRA implementation, CSD said, this was being done by "pushing illegal Van Surakshya Samitis through Ama Jungle Yojana."
Seeking strong directions to the state forest department, CSD urged NCST to tell the state government to issue CFR titles to all villages, to ensure ownership rights over minor forest produce, to recognise the individual forest rights of OTFDs, to "identify all forest and un-surveyed villages falling in the reserve forest and to convert them into revenue villages, to monitor the cancellation of IFR titles in the coal mining area of Hemgiri Block in Sundargarh district, to respect the PESA Act 1996, and to implement it in its true spirit in the Scheduled 5th areas."
CSD wanted the state government to also recognise the habitat rights of all the 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) in the state and implement the Central government’s mnimum support price scheme for minor forest produce "in its true spirit", and provide white paper on the coverage of implementation of FRA in villages of the state.
It also asked NCST to ensure enumeration of the exact landlessness among tribals families of the state and to provide one standard acres of revenue land to each and every tribal family, even endowing community ownership rights over all cashew forest/plantation land.
Thanking NCST intervention and recommendation on the "illegal" National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), especially NCTA's order dated March 28 2017, CSD sought direction to NTCA to immediately withdraw it, asking it to enhance compensation amount from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per family willing to be relocated from the tiger reserves of the country.
CSD at the same time urged NCST to direct the Central government to dismiss the anti-FRA Compensatory Afforestation (CAMPA) Fund Act, 2016 and sought flow of the forest protection and management fund directly to the bank account of the concerned gram sabhas.
Sai assured CSD members of "necessary directions" to both the state and Central governments regarding "violations" of FRA, 2006 and PESA, 1996 in the state. Apart from CSD members, community members from Nayagarh district filed separate petitions before NCST to get rights over cashew lands, which they have been "protecting" and on which they have "depended" for generations.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

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.

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

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 ...

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra* The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Search This Blog