Chhattisgarh forest dept claims control over community forest lands

     New Delhi, Jun 19 (PTI) The Chhattisgarh forest department has said it will manage forest land given to tribal communities under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) until the central government provides a plan for how these forests should be managed.
     Activists say this move goes against the law, which gives forest dwellers the right to protect and manage their forests.
     In a letter issued on May 15, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Force V Sreenivasa Rao referred to a 2020 order that made the forest department the nodal agency for implementing community forest resource rights. That order was withdrawn after strong criticism from tribal rights groups.
     Rao said the Supreme Court, in the 1996 T N Godavarman case, had directed that forests should be managed scientifically and with proper planning.
     Based on this, he said the National Working Plan Code, 2023, issued by the Environment Ministry, must be followed for all forest areas, including those under community control.
     He referred to a joint letter from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and the Environment Ministry dated March 14 that said MoTA would prepare a model plan for managing community forest resource rights areas and share it with states.
     The Chhattisgarh forest department said it had written to MoTA on March 6 asking for the plan. A decision on how to manage the community forest land will be taken after the plan is received, the order said.
     Until then, only forest working plans approved by the Environment Ministry can be followed, including in areas where rights have been granted to local communities.
     "Since a Model CFRMP/micro-plan for management of CFRR is required and has not been received from MoTA, no other departments, non-governmental organisations or private organisations should do any kind of work within the CFRR-allotted forest area," the letter reads. 
     A final decision on Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR) management will be taken after the model micro-plan is received from MoTA, it said.
     However, according to MoTA guidelines issued in April 2015, gram sabhas can develop their own "simple format for conservation and management plan of the CFR which its members can understand with ease and may also comprise of the rules and regulations governing forest access, use and conservation".
     The Forest Rights Act, 2006, recognises the rights of tribals and forest-dependent communities over the land they have lived on and protected for generations. Claims can be made for individual or community rights under the law. 
     The CFRR empowers gram sabhas to manage and protect community forest resources and to stop any activity that adversely affects wild animals, forests or biodiversity. 
     The Tribal Affairs Ministry is the nodal authority at the national level, and tribal welfare departments are the nodal agencies at the state level. 
     The forest department plays a supporting but non-decisive role. It is represented by a member in sub-divisional level committees and district-level committees, where it helps verify claims, provides forest maps and assists in land demarcation. 
     In Chhattisgarh, 4.78 lakh individual land titles have been distributed over a total of 3.82 lakh hectares of forest land under the Forest Rights Act. Community forest resource rights have been recognised over a total of 20,062.24 square kilometres of forest land in 4,349 cases. 
     Chhattisgarh-based forest and tribal rights activist Alok Shukla said the previous Congress government in the state had faced strong criticism for its May 2020 order and was forced to amend it. 
     "The Chhattisgarh forest department is not the nodal authority for implementing the Forest Rights Act and managing such lands in the state. If a state government issues such an order, it is completely illegal and goes against the basic structure of the Act, whose main objective is to democratise forest governance and give communities the power to protect and manage forests.
     "The forest department wants to keep control over forests and is unwilling to hand over management and protection rights to the community. By issuing such orders, the department has made its intentions clear," he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)