Forest act
After the lot of protests and political reactions across Jammu and Kashmir over the recent demolition drive held by the government in the forests of Pahalgam government came out with the statement saying that they were already implementing the forest act after the necessary amendments in October 2020.
In order to allay the fears of Gujjar and Bakarwals that the government was serious to evict them from the forest of Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam chaired a meeting to review the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, and Rules in Jammu and Kashmir which have been made applicable post enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019.Work on this had already begun by the departments of Tribal Affairs, and Forest, Ecology and Environment in October, 2020.
Forest Rights Act of 2006 provides for granting of rights to forest dwellers across the country. This central Act was, however, not applicable or implemented in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 14 years. It became applicable to J&K only after 31st October, 2019, hence, recognizing the rights of forest dwelling communities for the first time in the Union Territory.
Government has decided that the ‘survey of claimants’ by the Forest Rights Committees for assessing the nature and extent of rights being claimed at village level be completed by 15-01-2021, for their further submission to the respective Sub-Divisional Committees. The Sub-Divisional Committees shall complete the process of scrutiny of claims and preparation of ‘record of forest rights’ by or before 31-01-2021.
