Hariharpur, a small tribal village in Barkort block of Deogarh district, has rejected the Ama Jungle Yojana (AJY). In its Gram Sabha meeting, the villagers have taken a formal resolution to oppose the AJY offered by the Forest Department.
As per the Census 2011, Hariharpur is a Kandha tribal village has 26 households and 122 inhabitants. As per the Record of Rights (RoR) of the village, there are in total 151.49 acres of community land available within the Hariharpur revenue village out of which 70.87 acres are revenue forest land. Besides, the community people by using GPS machine have determined the Community Forest Resource (CFR) area amounting to 644 hectares(1,610 acres)falling in the Madisila reserve forest area which they have claimed under Community Forest Rights recognised under Forest Rights Act(FRA), 2006.
The unanimous decision was taken in a Gram Sabha meeting presided over by Padma lochan Bhoi, the senior most member in the village. In the Gram Sabha resolution, the community people have asserted that in the last two months the forest department people were consistently visiting the village and trying to convince them to form Vana Surakhya Samittee under AJY in their village by offering money for plantation, forest cleaning and thinning etc.
Accordingly to the Forest Rights Committee (FRC) president Purna Chandra Bhoi, ‘Even before three years the forest officials frequently visited our village and offered many things to motivate us to form VSS.’
Sharing what they have decided and written in the Gram Sabha resolution, Barun Nayak, the FRC secretary, said, ‘Since FRA, 2006 and Forest Rights Rules legally and constitutionally recognise our rights over forest and since we have already mapped out our CFR area and have applied our CFR claim at the Deogarh SDlC and have formed Forest Protection and Management Committee(FPMC) under Section 4(1)(e) of FR Rules, there is no need to form VSS in which the forest department people keep exclusive control over forest and money comes for forest protection and management.’
In its Gram Sabha resolution they have also noted the problems in recognising individual forest rights in the village. ‘When all the families of our village had applied for recognition of individual forest rights (IFR), only 22 families have been issued IFR titles haphazardly without ground verification limiting the actual forest land under possession. Even IFR titles have been issued over non-forest land. Hence through the Gram Sabha resolution, they have asked the FRA Sub-Divisional Committee (SDlC) and District level Committees (DlC) to rectify them soon after ground verification.
They have also alleged violation of Forest Rights Act, 2006 and FR Rules by the local forest officials who have dug farm pond, done plantation and cleaning and thinning within their CFR area last year without consulting the Gram Sabha. The Hariharpur Gram Sabha reported to have sent a resolution to all the concerned officials at the State level and at the district level for necessary information and action.
Hiradhar Sahu from Zilla Jungle Manch, Deogarh, who campaigns for Forest Rights Act,2006 and facilitates CFR claims in the district said, ‘The AJY is in direct violation of historic FRA, 2006. In the first phase, the Forest Department has taken 86 villages under AJY in Deogarh Forest Division engaging YAVARD NGO. Since reserve forest falls adjacent to the most revenue villages in Deogarh Forest Division, on an average, CFR areas of most of the Gram Sabhas would be more than 500 acres, when the forest area assigned to a VSS under AJY is limited to just 50 hectares (250 acres) only.’