Even though Odisha is ranked among the top in the country implementing the Forest Rights Act (FRA), the progressive implementation of the law in the State is still adversely affected by a number of policy-level and implementation issues, said the speakers at a Press conference here on Sunday.
These require special attention of the Government at this stage. Recognition of community forest rights (CFR) still remains a major challenge. The status report of the State Government on FRA reveals that till August 31, 2016, 13,403 CFR claims have been filed at the Gram Sabha level and out of that only 5,384 CFR titles have been recognised over 1,04,506 hectares of forest land.
If the number of forest fringe villages, which is 29,302, is taken as one of reference of forest dependent villages (FDA) then it is found that a large number of forest dependent villages have not been able to get community forest rights so far.
Conversion of Forest villages into Revenue villages has not taken place. Recognition of rights of the displaced communities due to mining and other developmental projects has not been recognised, alleged the speakers of several civil society organisations.
The other traditional forest dwellers are still excluded from the process of implementation as their rights are either not received or not considered for verification, or selectively rejected by the SDlC and DlC.
It is necessary for the Government to correct the legal anomalies to ensure compliance of the law in letter and spirit, said the speakers.