Political parties have let down voters as they have failed to give any concrete assurance on speedy and proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act that is critical for the survival of forest dwellers, people residing in rural and forest regions of the Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha constituency have said.
Key issues
During the past decade, the implementation of FRA and rights over forest produce have emerged as the key issues for forest dwellers across Mayurbhanj that goes to the polls on April 29.
According to Y. Giri Rao, a leading researcher on forest issues, of the 3,036 villages that come under the Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat, 2,633 villages have direct correlation with the implementation of FRA. In fact, 81.15% of the total 14,61,415 voters in Mayurbhanj are concerned about FRA implementation, said Mr. Rao.
“Despite six of the seven Assembly constituencies falling under Mayurbhanj being reserved for Scheduled Tribes and the voters being predominately forest dwellers, no political party has made any commitment for proper implementation of FRA,” said Dhaneswar Mohanta, a resident of Jashipur.
The average size of forestland recognised under the historic Act in Mayurbhanj is 0.68 acres as against the State’s average of 1.48 acres; in the case of particularly vulnerable tribal groups, the average size of forestland recognised is even smaller at 0.62 acres, said Mr. Mohanta.
Till December 2018, a total of 69,023 individual forest right claims have been received from 81% potential villages and 52,318 IFR claims have been approved by district-level committees. Also, 47% of distributed IFR titles were pending for incorporation in relevant government records.
Vulnerable tribes
Mr. Rao said Mayurbhanj is home to three particularly vulnerable tribal groups, namely Hill-Khadia, Mankidia and Lodha, and of them the Mankidias belong to the semi-nomadic community.
“Though the district-level committee approved habitat rights for Mankidias in 2016, the title has not been distributed due to opposition from the forest department, especially the Similipal Tiger Reserve authorities,” he alleged.
Protest in Simplipal
Forest dwellers residing inside the Similipal Tiger Reserve have long been protesting against displacement from the protected forest.
“Under FRA, lesser area is being recognised compared to the actual occupation of forest dwellers in Mayurbhanj. Moreover, tribals and other non-tribal forest dwellers, who critically depend on forest produce, are being prevented from collecting and selling non-timber forest produce,” said Mohanty Birua, a sarpanch of Astakuanar panchayat inside Similipal.
