In Odisha, less than six per cent of the State’s potential for rights recognition for over 25 million tribals and other traditional forest dwellers on nearly six million acre of land has been achieved, under Forest Rights Act (FRA), according to a new report released here on Monday.
The State level report on “Promise and Performance - Ten Years of the Forest Rights Act” found that in Odisha effective implementation of the law would ensure poverty alleviation and development in forested areas, improve forest conservation, and empower community-led afforestation.
Odisha was identified as one of a few States in the country that has recognised both Individual Forest Rights (IFR) and Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights. CFR rights enable communities to use, protect and manage large areas of their customary forests and resources.
The State report, released by a collective of civil society organizations (CSOs) found that in total forest rights could be recognised over 5,788,714 acres of land in 34,090 villages. To date community forest resource rights have been recognised over 264559.21 acres of land.
Major challenges identified in effective implementation of the FRA in Odisha include obstruction by the Forest Department in the CFR claim and recognition process, the dilution of the law by the department through schemes such as Ama Jungle Yojana (which promotes VSSs formed by the Forest Department), the non-recognition of rights of non-tribal forest dwellers, and large-scale plantation on community lands without gram sabha consent.
“Plantation of teak and eucalyptus by the Forest Department has reduced our area for cultivation. Previously we would grow 70-80 different types of millets. Now this variety has been completely reduced causing a crisis in food security and nutrition. We are open to trees being planted but these trees should be local species and benefit our community,” said a member of the Kutia Kondh community Basanta Majhi.
Concern has been raised by tribal groups in Odisha regarding the State Government’s wholehearted support to the recent enactment of CAMPA Act which contradict Forest Rights Act and does not have provision to ensure consent of gram sabhas.
“Odisha claims to be a frontrunner in recognising rights under FRA. However such claim is challenged by the facts presented in the report which reveal that implementation of FRA is limited to only few pockets (mostly due to civil society efforts) and large number of CFR claims are pending in the tribal districts,” said a leading campaigner of the National Campaign for Survival and Dignity. Manohar Chauhan
“Claims are particularly pending in the mining districts (Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Koraput, Rayagada) prompting self-declaration of Community Forest Resource areas by gram sabhas in large numbers,” added Chauhan.
“FRA holds great significance for Odisha as more than forty percent of total population live and depend on forests in the State including tribals, particularly vulnerable tribals groups, Dalits and women, said Director of Vasundhara Y Giri Rao.
The State level report recommends scaling up of recognition of CFR rights by the State Government to cover all potential tribal and forested districts, strengthening of institutional mechanism for implementation particularly functioning of the State level monitoring committee, the district and sub-divisional level committees, establishing dedicated FRA Cells at the Tribal Department to provide support to implementation and political intervention to address the conflicting programmes implemented by the Forest Department (Ama Jungle Yojana, CAMPA) obstructing FRA and CFR rights.