Gadchiroli villages get rights to forests

Mendha-Lekha and Marda in Gadchiroli district,which became the first villages under the Forest Rights Act to get community ownership of the forests around them in August....

Mendha-Lekha and Marda in Gadchiroli district,which became the first villages under the Forest Rights Act to get community ownership of the forests around them in August,were on Tuesday handed over the Record of Rights by Governor S C Jamir at a function at Gadchiroli.

The two tribal villages had successfully claimed community rights over the

forest around their villages under the new Traditional Forest-dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act (Tribal Act) in August.

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Gadchiroli Collector Atul Patne had made the announcement to the effect in his Independence Day address.

The Tribal Act is generally known to bestow individual land ownership rights upon people living traditionally in the forests and having encroached upon what is defined as forestland. Not many are aware that the Act also offers to give virtual ownership of the forest surrounding the villages to village communities.

This is the first such achievement by any village in the country, said tribal activist Mohan Hirabai Hiralal who,along with Mendha villager Devaji Tofa,has been associated with the two villages for many years now.

Now,the administration shouldnt ask other villages to file their claims. The law provides for it,so it should complete the procedure and confer the rights duly on all Gadchiroli villages, he added.

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Mendha-lekha had become widely known more than a decade ago for declaring itself as a self-determining village implementing its own development programmes while allowing least governmental intervention while drawing its force from the Panchayati Raj Act.