Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 29: A day-long workshop with Gujjars and Bakkarwals Scheduled Tribe groups was held here today to provide them awareness about Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006 and its various provisions. The program was held under the chairmanship of noted Tribal Researcher Dr Javaid Rahi.
Local PRI members and Forest Right Committee members of different Panchayats including BDC Chairman Bajalta Chowdhary Rehmat Ali, Sadiq Poodhh, Mohammad Shareif Chouhan ,Haji Mirza Bokda and Haji Zabeer Bakerwals, took part in the workshop.
During the workshop, Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional Forest Dwellers groups were asked to give inputs about the problem they were facing to get constitutional rights including Forest Rights so that assistance could be provided to them in this regard.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Javaid Rahi stated that Forest Right Act is key legislation that was extended to J&K in 2019, after 14 years of its existence in other states of India. It provides rights to Tribal and Forest dwellers to use and protect forests to earn their livelihood, he said.
He said that the new J&K Non-Timber Forest Policy was aimed at ensuring sustainable collection and utilization of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), including medicinal plants, by Tribals and Forest dwellers which will provide livelihood support to them by promoting sustainable extraction, value addition and development of market linkages.
Dr Rahi also gives details to tribal people about this policy, “Van Dhan Yojana” and TRIFED which will help the Tribal and other Forest Dwellers to use the Forest resource and get the benefits. He called for raising awareness among the community through volunteers besides the liberal distribution of awareness material among the stakeholders.
The participants of the workshop made aware of the role of various institutions like Forest Right Committees, SDLC and DLC in the implementation of the Forest Right Act along with various procedures for getting forest rights.
Follow our WhatsApp channel