Recognise historic injustice to the tribals 1878 1927 acts. And restore symbiotic relationship of forest and tribals by providing
Title rights. St and other forest dwellers living essence 3 generations upto 4 hectares
Use rights for pastures and forest produce like bamboo and tendu
Management and protection rights on forest and wildlife
Community rights to gram sabha to regulate forest use
Rehabilitation in case of displacement
Process. gram sabha approves claims and their screened and approved that sub division and district levels.
Performance. MoTA 2018. 90% of 4200000 claims have been disposed where 18 lacs individual claims and 70,000 community claim has been approved. Total tribals are 100 million tribals
But experts argue DTE 2018. Procedures are violated, numbers are inflated, rejections are arbitrary, many are unaware and yet to file claims.
Lacunae by xaxa and dte news
Lack of ownership documents
Procedures are violated like tribals not told of rejection. Mankadias evicted before process ended.
Apathy of officials and tribal unaware.
State government subverts the law. Maharashtra 2014 village rules give forest rights to government not gram sabha.
Solutions
Translate provisions in local language for officials and tribals.
Generate awareness and empower gram sabha
Reject only after proper appeal and verification
Recently Supreme Court ordered eviction of rejected claims. Government is amending forest act 1927 with more powers to the bureaucracy. Draft forest policy 2018 wants to commercialize forest and involve private sector in it. Political well is needed to balance tribal interest.
Case study. G Sahu Indian express 2018
In Panchgaon, Chandrapur Maharashtra forest rights have created 91 lakh revenue in 4 years which created
bamboo based livelihood, reduced out migration, better health and education, reduced forest fire and better quality of life.
Odisha has link forest rights with poverty alleviation programmes.