The empowerment of traditional forest dwellers should be ensured to fully implement the Forest Rights Act in its true sense. Chief Minister Harish Rawat said this while chairing a high level meeting on implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 here on Wednesday.
Rawat directed officials of the Forest Department and Social Welfare department to conduct an elaborate awareness campaign to inform the traditional forest dwellers about rights accorded to them under the Forest Rights Act. This act has been introduced to recognize the rights of those traditional forest dwellers whose rights were never documented. This law is aimed at protecting the rights of forest dwellers with Tribal Welfare and Social Welfare department being made the nodal agencies for it. The Forest department will have to play its role in this with a positive attitude, said the CM.
Considering the situation in Uttarakhand, decisions will have to be taken categorising the forest dwellers. The first category will be large populations settled in forest areas as in Bindukhatta from where it is impossible to relocate large populations. The State will recommend regularisation of such areas to the Centre. The second category will comprise historically 75 year old leased plots for which the Forest Department will collect necessary documents. The third category will be settlements made in forest areas during recent years. The department should make a policy for relocating such settlements to areas like degraded forests. The fourth category will comprise those settled by the department for commercial afforestation and other works. The department will attempt to make their lives more convenient. He told officials to seek legal opinion to ascertain whether the State Government can bring about its amendment act to clarify some provisions of this central act in more detail.