Dimapur, November 5 (MExN): In a bid to safeguard tribal rights over forest lands, six influential civil societies based in Manipur today urged both the Central and the Manipur state governments to cease undermining community control over forest lands in the hill areas and condemned the extension of Joint Forest Management schemes in the hill areas of Manipur and other areas of the Northeast
A press communiqué, issued after a meeting of representatives from the United Naga Council, Campaign for Survival and Dignity, Zomi Human Rights Foundation, Naga Women’s Union Manipur, All Naga Students’ Association Manipur, Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights along with other interested citizens, protested the Forest Department’s use of ambiguous and extra-legal terms like “unclassed state forests” when describing community forest lands.
Giving reasons for their protest, the communiqué said that after the recent rulings of the Supreme Court of India, these terms can be used to claim that these lands are actually government forests, and hence are subject to the Central government’s control under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
“This would then mean that any “non-forest” activity, such as jhum cultivation, would need permission from Delhi; and all activities would need to pay money for ‘compensatory afforestation’,” said the communiqué and added that recently the Forest Department has demanded such ‘afforestation funds’ from the BRTF for the road from Imphal to Ukhrul, when even the communities who own the land are not asking for any compensation.
In the light of this, the communiqué expressed deep concern after the recent moves by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to institute a legal definition of the term ‘forest’, for the purposes of the Forest Conservation Act that would also include community forests and “unclassed forests.”
Furthermore, the communiqué also condemned the extension of Joint Forest Management schemes in the hill areas of Manipur and other areas of the Northeast and said that such schemes seek to bring ‘community forest’ under the management of the Forest Department through the JFM Committees, and constitute a ‘back-door’ method of taking control of lands owned by community.
“All these policies are illegal, the participants stressed, since the community’s right to control, manage and protect forests is enshrined in customary law and in the Constitution and cannot be taken away by official fiat,” the communiqué declared.
In this connection, the communiqué disclosed that the participants of today’s meeting expressed support for the ongoing struggle for the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, and at the same time called on the government to explain the repeated efforts to dilute and delay this key legislation.
