Jharkhand sits near the bottom among the States in terms of issuing 'pattas' of forest land to its primate dwellers and dependents. Since the Forest Rights Act came into existence in 2006, only 22419 pattas have been granted to the people of the State against the great figures achieved by neighbouring Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.
The dismal show in the tribal dominant State irked Chief Minister Raghubar Das when he held the officials concerned responsible for it. "It has been a sensitive issue in the State but our performance is extremely unsatisfactory so far. Tribal and primitive residents of forests across the State should have got more pattas in last eight years but we have been able to give only 24000 odd to individuals while only 494 at the community levels. It was our responsibility which we could not deliver," said the CM while inaugurating a day-long workshop on Monday. The workshop was jointly oragnised by the State Government and PACS to generate awareness among officials about the statuary rights given to the forest dwellers.
The Act enables legal rights over forest land to original and traditional dwellers for earning their livelihood coming from the minor forest produces and also allows farming on the land. The empowerment, it is thought, would help in safeguarding existing forest cover along with the dependents who are earning their livelihood since time immemorial.
"Tribes residing in forest have worked towards protection of forest and by their efforts only Jharkhand has maintained the tag of a well forested State. Providing respect to them is our responsibility but what I see a lack of consorted effort among Welfare, Forest and Revenue Departments in this direction," added the CM. In comparison to Jharkhand, Government of Odisha has issued over 6 lakh forest land pattas whereas West Bengal has crossed 1.5 lakh.
Nevertheless looking at the poor show the State Government has taken up a special drive to generate awareness among masses and hopes to generate more number of claims over forest land in comparison to just 44,389 that have come in last eight years. "Now it is our priority and in the next 1-2 years, Jharkhand would do substantial in this field. I also expect lots of discussion taking place at Gram Sabha meeting between June 1 and 15 till the drive is continuing. We should set a target to given 20,000 to 22,000 forest land pattas in the next 3-4 months. I appeal officials of the concerned Department to work in unison manner and deliver their duty towards common people of the State," said Das, who on the occasion distributed pattas for 250 acres of forest land for communities, honoured grass-root level activists for their work in forest conservation and flagged-off awareness vans.
Welfare Minister louis Marandi also blamed officials for letting down and told them to pull up their shocks in understanding nitty gritty of the law. BC Nigam, PCCF, underlined the importance of people's participation in forest protection but sounded caution before clearing any claim.
"Role of Gram Sabhas should come into force and any claim over forest land should be cleared at that level first. I also admit that reason behind the unsatisfactory results in Jharkhand is lack of coordination among the Departments apart from information about it at lower level," said Nigam.