Securing Forest Rights and Livelihoods of Tribals

The report suggests that all acts, laws, rules and executive orders and state forest laws and rules should be in harmony with the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

Centre in co-operation with State governments should implement the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 in its right spirit. It has the potential of unlocking various development opportunities in tribal areas by allowing accessibility of tribal communities to minor forest produce.

Exclusionary policies of wildlife and forest conservation is leading to tribals being treated as criminals and encroachers of their own forest lands.

Secure forest rights can unlock opportunities for economic and social well-being of tribals and other forest dwelling communities, and help ensure round the year livelihoods and income security for tribals.

There is very little post-harvest processing and value addition at the local level due to poor infrastructure, and there is little incentive for the tribal communities to invest in improved production and marketing. Tribal youths may no longer be interested to stay in the forestry business, unless the production/collection and marketing of timber and non-timber forest products become remunerative.

Although Government of India fixes minimum support prices for 49 minor forest produce, only a few States like Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Jharkhand have shown some interest in implementing it. In fact, there is no suitable institutional mechanism for procurement of minor forest products at minimum support prices. Providing support through Van Dhan Vikas kendras does not help much as there are hardly 1,126 such kendras in the country, most of which are non-functional, the report notes.

The report highlights the need to empower tribal communities, especially the gatherers of minor forest products through self-help groups and cooperatives, to enable them to participate and benefit from organised marketing and processing.

As per FRA, forest land can be diverted only after implementation of FRA and with the consent of Gram Sabhas, but between 2008 and 2016, about 3.1 million hectares of forest land was diverted for non-forest purposes without the consent of Gram Sabhas.

It has been estimated that 35- 40 million hectare of India’s forest area across 1.7 lakh villages should be recognised as Community Forest Resource (CFR). This would benefit about 150 million people, including over 100 million tribals. So far, after more than a decade of implementation of FRA, total forest area over which CFR rights have been recognised is 3.56 million hectares i.e., about 8.9 per cent.

As of April 2019, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha accounted for 83.5 per cent of the total number of community titles distributed and 73.5 per cent of total area of community forest land distributed.

The report recommends building capacities of tribals and other traditional forest dwelling communities to submit FRA claims accurately, get their rights recorded and use simple tools such as GPS/GIS to mark land boundaries and to prepare land use maps.

Focus and Factoids by Priti David.