Villagers residing near forests are helping the Chhattisgarh Government protect forests in their vicinity and maintain the necessary green cover.
The Government took the initiative under the name of Joint Forest Management wherein various forest protection committees have been formed, officials stated.
The members of as many as 7,887 Joint Forest Management Committees have been protecting forests in an area of 33,000 square kilometres. The number of such forest committees was a mere 4,000 in 2003 which had now reached 7,887 in 2015.
The total membership of the joint forest committees is 27.63 lakh in which there are 14.36 lakh women and 13.27 lakh men.
The Chhattisgarh Government has distributed 3.53 lakh forest rights’ titles ‘pattas’ to the forest dwellers till August this year, officials stated.
Tribal and Scheduled Caste Development Department officials said Chhattisgarh topped the list on distribution of land to forest-dwellers in the entire country.
The co-operative committees provide interest-free loans to the individual Forest Rights’ title patta holders. The farmers are provided with fertilizers and seeds for agricultural purposes. Irrigation pumps are distributed to farmers under the Shakambari Scheme for vegetable cultivation.
About 56 per cent forest region is managed by the Joint Forest Management Committees. About 5,500 forest-dwellers have been given forest rights titles’ pattas.
The Department officials said the pattas have been distributed as per the Scheduled Castes and other Traditional Forest-Dwellers (Forest Rights Pattas) Act.
The forest dwellers have been given the right to utilise forest land and forest produce in a balanced manner. The tribals and other residents of the forest had overcome the persistent poverty that plagues the inaccessible regions.
The Panchayat and Rural Development Department had spent Rs 41.77 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in 2014-15 and Rs 63.43 crore in 2015-16 for works like land development, Dabri construction, animals’ sheds and toilets’ construction.
The State Government with the financial assistance of the Central Government is rapidly transforming the lives of forest dwellers in the remote areas of the State.
The Chief Secretary presides over the Forest Rights’ State-level Monitoring and Vigilance Committee and there is a constant review of the developments at the forest villages level.
The officials said all the 431 forest villages have been transformed to revenue villages. Demarcations for 7.32 lakh land pattas have already been completed.