This report by National Committee on Forest Rights Act (FRA) submitted by N C Saxena to Shri Kantilal Bhuria, Union Minister of tribal affairs says that with notable exceptions, the implementation of FRA has been poor & includes recommendations for implementing it effectively. The Ministry of Environment and Forests and …
The struggle to protect the rapidly vanishing tiger is getting murkier by the day. Up to 100,000 families are slated for displacement, ostensibly to secure India’s tiger habitats. Unfortunately, most of the relocation taking place violates the law and may end up creating more conflicts that cause the tiger’s decline. …
Two tribal villages in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra—Mendha Lekha and Marda— savoured victory when they won community rights over their forest resources in August last year. The rights conferred under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 include the right to collect and sell minor forest produce (MFP). These include tendu …
A COMMITTEE set up by the government to investigate POSCO India’s compliance with the forest rights act (FRA) in its steel plant in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district has presented two divergent perceptions in its report. The committee, constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to examine the company’s proposal for …
The Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act of 2006 offer a great opportunity to provide equitable governance in tribal-dominated backward areas. But these laws are skeletons and need the flesh and sinews of operational rules and guidelines, removal …
THE forest departments of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are forcibly evicting tribals from forestland. Around 50 huts of the Korku community in Madhya Pradesh were demolished on August 29. On July 30, forest guards assaulted tribals of the Kunbi community for cultivating in forestland in Dang district in Gujarat. The …
SEVERAL people living in Patyachapaani, a tribal hamlet inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in suburban Mumbai, have been mauled by leopards in recent years. But they do not want to shift and are protesting the forest department's plan to relocate them in the forest fringe. About three months ago, …
The Forest Rights Act of 2006—also known as the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act—came after considerable and bitter opposition from conservation groups. They said the Act, which would grant land rights to tribals and other forest dwellers, would destroy forests and wipe out …
The creation of inviolate areas in protected forests has been a key concern of conservation for decades. It assumes the only way to conserve "critical" areas is to relocate people who live in these forests. In theory, such people are moved and provided higher living standards while the inviolate area …
THE Union environment ministry has written to Orissa's principal secretary (forests) directing the state to stop work on the Korean steel giant POSCO's plant in Jagatsinghpur district. The August 5 letter comes after the joint committee of the Central environment and tribal affairs ministries submitted a report on Forest Rights …
This expert panel report on Vedanta's bauxite mining project in Orissa submitted to MoEF on August 16, 2010 says that the company must not given permission for this project as it has illegally occupied forest land andwill also threaten survival of local tribes. <br>The proposed mining lease (PML) area, which …
This study of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the Western Ghats of Kerala identifies the main constraints to the working of the legislation. Community rights and conservation provisions seem to be ignored. The paper also highlights the importance of integrating the implementation of the fra with …
THE Union environment and forests ministry is approving use of forestland for industrial and other infrastructure projects in violation of its own executive orders and provisions of the Forests Rights Act (FRA) of 2006. Scrutiny of project clearance processes undertaken by forest rights groups indicates the no rms are violated …
THOUGH three years have passed since the Forest Rights Act came into force, most villages in Maharashtra are still fighting for rights to manage their forests under the law. Over 100 villagers and activists from different districts of Maharashtra who gathered in Pune on June 12 said bureaucracy is obstructing …
The notification of Mudumalai Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu as a tiger reserve in 2007 has resulted in a contested politics between activists, non-governmental organisations and conservationists with regard to the future of protected area management. This paper presents an account of how these actors positioned themselves around not only the …
An act to recognise and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded; to provide for a framework for recording the forest rights …
