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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Gram sabhas to control forest body in Maharashtra-Urmi A Goswami

Gram sabhas to control forest body in Maharashtra-Urmi A Goswami

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published Published on Jul 9, 2012   modified Modified on Jul 9, 2012
-The Economic Times

The Centre's efforts to ensure economic empowerment of tribals in forest areas received a fillip with the Maharashtra government's order to bring all joint forest management committees under the control of gram sabhas. 

The state government resolution transferred all rights of minor forest produce and major timber to the gram sabha-elected joint forest management committees. Despite legal guarantees, many gram sabhas (village assemblies) are unable to have a final say in the sale of forest products like bamboo. This was particularly the situation in Maharashtra's Naxal-affected district of Gadchiroli. 

"A convergence has been achieved for the twin objectives, namely peoples' participation in instruments and institutions of forestry sector and local self-governance. The joint forest management committees will be operating as a committee of the gram panchayat, separate for each hamlet, and will be elected by the gram sabha," Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said. 

The idea behind joint forest management committee was to develop a partnership between the forest and tribal communities dependent on the forests for their sustenance and the forest department, on the basis of mutual trust and jointly defined roles and responsibilities with regard to forest protection and development. 

However, in practice, this partnership based on mutual trust has had an uneven track record. Local communities often complained that the committees were controlled by the forest department. Giving primacy to the gram sabhas and bringing the joint forest management committees under its control is seen as a way of ensuring that local communities can access expertise from the department while retaining oversight. 

Under the forest rights act, once the community rights of forest dwellers are recognised, the gram sabha has full control over the forest products. In practical terms, it requires the forest department to hand over the 'transit passbook', or permit to remove products from the forest, to the gram sabha. Till the community rights have been settled, the forest department takes decisions on the sale of forest products. 

Last year, transit passbook for bamboo was handed over to the gram sabha of Mendha Lekha in Gadchiroli. The move gave the villagers greater control over the sale and use of bamboo. As a result the gram sabha earned 1 crore from sustainable harvesting of bamboo in the community forest. 

Since then, community forest rights have been settled in some 400-odd villages in Gadchiroli district. Of these, in some 15 villages, the transit passbooks for bamboo have been handed over to the gram sabhas. However, the results from Mendha Lekha have not been replicated.

The Economic Times, 9 July, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/gram-sabhas-to-control-forest-body-in-maharashtra/articleshow/14761501.cms


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