In what is possibly a first in the country, two tribal villages in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district have successfully claimed community rights over the forest around their villages under the new tribal Act, The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Right) Act.

Gadchiroli district guardian minister Ramesh Bang, in his Independence Day address, declared the decision in favour of Mendha-Lekha near Dhanora and Marda near Potegaon.

While the Act is known to bestow individual land ownership rights on people living traditionally in forests and having encroached on what is defined as forest land, it also offers virtual ownership of the forest surrounding a village to a village community.

“This is the first such decision in the country and we are extremely happy that the Collector and Bang took active lead in making this a reality,” said tribal activist Mohan Hirabai Hiralal. From now on, Mendha-Lekha and Marda will have legal rights to manage and utilise about 1,800 and 880 hectares of forests respectively.

Will the government leave the forests to the good sense of the communities which may not always be the case? “That is how forests have traditionally survived,” said Collector Atul Patne. “It is the tribals and traditional forest-dwellers who have protected the forest while outsiders have destroyed it. That’s why the Act seeks to empower them to manage their own forests,” he said.

Mendha-Lekha first hit the headlines more than a decade ago with its Mawa Nate Mawa Raj (We the Government) slogan, declaring itself as a self-determining village implementing its own development programmes while allowing least governmental intervention. It drew strength from provisions of the Panchayati Raj Act. It was also the first village to come out with a bio-diversity register (record of the bio-diversity in the forest around the village) under the Biodiversity Act.

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