Raipur. A campaign to raise awareness regarding Community Forest Resource Rights will be run in the state from August 15 this year to January 26, 2023. The aim is to make the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers aware of their rights on the forest land.
Meanwhile, guidelines for implementation of Community Forest Resource Rights have been prepared at the state level and workshops were organized for field workers, but information and procedures were still not accessible to the Gram Sabhas. Keeping this in view, Chief Minister felt the need for running a special campaign to make Gram Sabhas aware in this regard. The Foundation for Ecological Security in collaboration with the forest and tribal development department prepared a calendar for this campaign to educate the Gram Sabhas about the aforementioned procedures. This calendar was launched by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on August 9 on the occasion of World Tribal Day.
The campaign will be kicked off during the celebrations of the 75th year of Independence Day of India, reciting about the Forest Rights Act in all the Gram Panchayats. A target has been set to have a discussion on community forest resource rights in the Gram Sabhas of all forest-based villages across the state by January 2023. As a part of this campaign, Gram Sabha will be organized in August for launching claims, talks with the Chief Minister through ‘Lokvaani’ in September, proposals in the Gram Sabha in October, programmes on the State Foundation Day in November, Haat Bazaar in December and discussions in the Gram Sabhas in the month of January. All the voluntary organizations indulged in this work for a long time will join the campaign.
Meanwhile, campaign song, awareness posters, and a film based on the efforts of Charagaon Gram Sabha were screened during the launch of this campaign in a programme organized here by the Tribal Development Department on Tuesday.
In the programme, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel directed the Tribal Development and Forest Departments to conduct this campaign across the state. He also urged the voluntary organizations to make the campaign a success. Chhattisgarh is said to be the only state targeting to recognize community forest resource rights and making consistent efforts to empower Gram Sabhas for the same.
Foundation for Ecological Security Executive Director Sanjay Joshi said the organization work toward a rights-based management system that fosters community ownership. Through this, efforts are also made for the conservation of nature and natural resources. In keeping with the spirit, the organization in collaboration with the Chhattisgarh government is trying to strengthen the management of community forest resource rights at the field level.
At present, claims of Community Forest Resource Rights have been approved in a total of 3801 villages in the state. These include claims of 15, 32,316.866 hectares. In community forest resource rights, the right of forest land within the limits of a traditional village is given to the Gram Sabhas giving them the responsibility for the protection, conservation, and management of the forest area concerned. The Gram Sabhas constitute the Forest Rights Committee for submission of a claim and can constitute the Forest Management Committee for the management on receipt of the claim.
For claims, village elderly, women, representatives of all residing tribes along with Patwaris, forest guards, and panchayat secretaries identify the customary boundary and share the information with the neighboring village. Along with this, a related map, village settlement sheet, statement of elders and no-objection certificate of the village adjoining the neighboring border are attached. Following this, the verification is done by the subdivision level committee. If everything is found correct, it is sent to the district-level, committee. If everything is found to be ok, then the community forest resource rights letter is issued.
