Dr.Javaid Rahi
Recently, the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha while chairing the third meeting of the Wildlife Board for the UT of J&K, at Raj Bhawan Srinagar, has directed the concerned functionaries to complete the process of granting Forest Rights under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in a time bound manner. He impressed upon the officials to focus on ‘Individual rights’ of Tribal and other Forest Dwelling communities on Forests and do the needful within a time frame.
Tribal groups such as Gujjars, Bakerwals, Gaddis and Sippis, together constitute 1.5 million population of Jammu and Kashmir as per 2011 census-widely welcomed the announcement, with the hope that they will get access to forest resources legally and such conferment of rights will authorise them to independently manage, protect and govern the forests.
Reasons of Slow Implementation Process
Though a good number of claims are under process in various committees of FRA but largely the implementation process is at a sluggish pace in Jammu and Kashmir due to various reasons.
In a few areas the process adopted by the ‘Gram Sabha’ to finalise the claims at Village level is very much slow owing to the reason that most of the claimants are from pastoral communities which are practising migratory way of life and not available in the areas for on spot verification of claims or vote. The lack of quorum in Gram Sabha to pass FRA resolutions in view of less number of tribal /Other Forest Dwellers is another issue. Lack of coordination between Gram Sabha -Forest Rights Committee and local Panchayats besides missing connections between Panchayati Raj, Forest and Revenue Departments and Gram Sabha in the several areas -requires a review.
Court cases are also posing a reason for the implementation of FRA in JKUT. For example in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Save Animals Value Environment (SAVE) Versus J&K and Others, the Forest Department, on the repeated directions of the JK High Court, had filed a comprehensive report in the month of September 2020 mentioning that over 64,000 persons have encroached around 3.5 lakh kanals of forest land in the entire Union Territory. Ironically , some FRA claimants were also part of this list. So a confusion still exists everywhere- who deserves to be a genuine claimant ?.
Further, the JK High Court struck down the Roshni Act in 2020 and directed the Jammu and Kashmir government to retrieve the land granted under this Act to beneficiaries and the government also initiated the action against public functionaries/ officers who were involved in the allotments scam.
Impact of this case is visible on Forest Rights Cases in J&K as officers on ground largely defer such cases , though , in last 15 years of its implementation in all the states of India no such case is reported against any officer or officers for misdoing as FRA involves a community level decisions and no officer is competent to give pata to any person without the approval of village (Gram Sabha).
The gaps in implementation
Though government is performing well in implementation of FRA in J&K but during my two and a half-years awareness campaign across Jammu and Kashmir about the newly extended two laws, I identified some gaps in the implementation process that includes the followings:
1) The urban claimants are still waiting to file claims as FRCs are yet to be constituted in urban areas of Jammu and Kashmir, so far.
2) Significantly, the nodal agency for FRA implementation is the Forest Department. In the rest of the states, the Tribal Affairs Department is designated as the nodal agency. For an effective and speedy implementation of FRA, the Tribal Affairs Department or Panchayat Raj Department should be declared as the nodal agency by the Government like other states of India.
3) In view of a J&K High Court order, reports surface about some forceful eviction of tribals from the forest land that they had occupied for centuries. Such evictions are in violation of the provisions/section 4(5) of the FRA, which categorically states that ‘no member of a forest dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers shall be evicted or removed from the forest land under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is completed’ in all respects.
4) Notably, the eviction and fencing programmes launched by the Forest Department in some of the areas have adversely impacted the implementation of FRA which requires a review in light of FRA.
5) Due to the low literacy rate among the tribes of Jammu and Kashmir, the understanding of these laws is very poor. More awareness programmes are needed to help the tribals know their rights promised under the two laws. Ironically, even some officials assigned with the work of implementation of FRA are not sufficiently aware of the rules and procedures under these laws. Also, there is a lack of coordination between government officials and the village committees/gram sabha/FRC regarding physical verification of the claims.
6) Under the FRA a notification is still awaited from DMs in Jammu and Kashmir to initiate the process of converting forest villages/old habitats into revenue villages.
7) Obtaining caste (Scheduled Tribe) certificate from a tehsildar (as evidence) remains a challenge as a large number of tribes reside in the forests. The ST certificate is not to be issued without evidence of revenue land records. In Odisha state, for example, a Gram Sabha is empowered to issue Tribal Certificate for FRA purposes.
8) In Jammu and Kashmir, an upper committee usually reverts a claim to the village committee/Gram Sabha for review. Most of the reversions were due to lack of proper quorum or the wording of the resolution. For approval of claims, a presence of 50 percent of the total population — having age of 18 years or above — of a Panchayat, with one third women and 50 percent claimants is essential to form a quorum to pass any resolution for settlement of any type of claims under the FRA.
Hopes & Expectations of tribes
The J&K’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, in his public and official interactions, has been cautioning the departments involved in implementing the FRA that tribal rights must not be infringed upon.
Though the situation is good in a few areas with regard to implementation of FRA but in some districts the situation on ground is not so consoling which requires special attention from the government.
In view of repeated assurances from high-ups, especially from Lt Governor himself, the expectations among the tribal community with regard to forest rights are very high despite the process on ground being very slow. The hope, expectations and the demands of the Tribal community can’t be met without expediting the process of FRA implementation.
Prior to the announcement the claimants were demanding that the claims should be cleared in a time-bound manner. Regular meetings of the committees at sub-divisional and district levels should be held to decide FRA issues.
There is an urgent need to defer the ongoing eviction drives and fencing of forests in such areas where FRA claims are still pending. In this regard, the forest, revenue and Panchayat Raj officials and non-official members of the committees must be trained regularly and orientation courses be held for those who are already trained to deal with FRA cases.
For the caste certificate, the Odisha model should be adopted, and the Urban FRA committees should be framed on priority, enabling the tribes residing in urban areas to file claims. Similarly, the Gram Sabha and village level FRCs should be taken into confidence when forest officials visit the area for demarcation of land, preparing of maps and other activities. Under FRA, the DM should issue notification inviting claims under FRA for conversion of forest villages/Old habitats into revenue villages under the act.
For implementation of the SC/ST Atrocities Act and highlighting the part related to FRA , more efforts are required including awareness among the masses and public functionaries about the act, establishment of special courts at district level for speedy hearing of such cases on the prototype of other states. DMs, SDM and Magistrates should be trained to deal with these cases at their level.
Though the things are going at a slow pace, tribal groups are by and large enthused that the extension of new laws to Jammu and Kashmir will empower them and end centuries-old deprivation and discrimination.
(The author is a Tribal Researcher)
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