The implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, popularly known as the Forest Rights Act, is now causing ‘bureaucratic confusion’ between the Department of Tribal Development and the Forest and Environment Department.

THE issue pertains to the conflict of interests between the Forest Rights Committees and the Forest Protection Committees.

The Rights Committee is constituted in every village by the Tribal Development Department (TDD) under Section 6(1) of the Forest Rights Act, for the verification of land claims by the tribals before they are screened and approved at the taluka and district levels.

The Committee is granted access to non-timber forest products and share in timber revenue in return for protecting the forests from fire, grazing and illegal harvesting as well as carrying out plantation works.

The Protection Committee is constituted by the Forest and Environment Department under its Centrally-sponsored Joint Forest Management scheme, and though both committees involve the local village communities, they perceive their interests as conflicting in nature.

This is evident from such incidents reported in the Devgadh Baria taluka of Dahod district, where the Protection Committee members vehemently opposed the land claims submitted to the gram panchayat by the Rights Committee.

Roop Singh Chauhan, Secretary, Eklavya Sangathan, an organisation based in Limkheda village in Dahod that has been fighting for tribal forest rights said: ”Nearly 200 such cases have come to our notice where the land claims have been contended in the gram sabhas. The Protection Committees do it, as larger forest cover means larger incentives by the Forest Department.”

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