A district-level consultation on the implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006 was held on January 20 here. It was organised by Centre for Peoples Forestry (CPF) with the support of Oxfam India.
Around 70 participants from individual and community forest rights claimants, members of Forest Rights Committees (FRC) and civil society organisations working on FRA in the district joined the consultation.
P Rajanikanth from CPF welcomed all the participants and shared the objectives of the consultation. The consultation had two sessions, i.e. inaugural session including sharing of FRA implementation issues in the district followed by technical session where strategies as to how to deal with the FRA implementation issues in the district were discussed.
The first session was presided over by Manohar Chauhan, member, Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD). Y Giri Rao, director of the State based NGO Vasundhra presented the updated status report on FRA implementation in State and Keonjhar district and Prabhat Mishra from RCDC working on FRA implementation shared the various State and district level FRA implementation issues.
According to sources, FRC has been formed in all 2,045 revenue villages in Keonjhar district. In total 67,364 IFR claims of STs have been filed at the FRC level. Out of which Gram Sabha has approved 54,902 and SDlC and DlC have approved 52,067 IFR claims and by November last, 52,067 IFR titles have been issued in the district over 17,877 hectares of forest land.
The average forest land reported to have been issued in the district is 0.85 acres which is much less than the State’s average of 1.51 acres. It is also reported that out of the 52,067IFR titles, 4,907 IFR titles have been issued to the Juanga PTG/PVTG over 6,125.76 acres of forest land. Besides, it is reported that 15,297 IFR claims of the STs have been rejected by the SDlCs in the district.
Besides, it is reported that, in total 550 Community Forest Rights(CFR) claims have been filed at the gram sabha level and by November 30 last 511 CFR titles have been issued in the district over 22,810 acres of forest land.
In the second half, all the civil society organizations working on FRA in the district discussed on how to deal with the various FRA implementation issues in the district.