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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Odisha tribal organisations protest against draft CAF Rules -Ishan Kukreti

Odisha tribal organisations protest against draft CAF Rules -Ishan Kukreti

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published Published on Feb 22, 2018   modified Modified on Feb 22, 2018
-Down to Earth

The protests are in opposition to the vague position of the Rules on forest-dwelling communities in the compensatory afforestation process

The draft Compensatory Afforestation Fund Rules, 2018, notified by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on February 16, have sparked protests by tribal organisations in Odisha. The protests are due to the fact that the Rules are vague on the role of communities in the compensatory afforestation process.

The Rules had been pending since the government passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act on July 28, 2016. They govern the utilisation of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund. The Fund currently stands at around Rs. 50,000 crore.

The Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of tribal and forest dwellers’ organisations active in ten Indian states in India, organised the protest in Odisha.

“All the activities mentioned under the Rules should be implemented through the Gram Sabha and not the Van Sanrakshan Samiti under Joint Forest Management. Artificial regeneration must not be allowed and provisions should be made by Gram Sabhas to select species. There should be Gram Sabha auditing. Transparency and accountability should be mandatory and the forest department should be answerable to the Gram Sabha,” Chitta Ranjan Pani, a researcher on tribal livelihood said. Talking about the Rules' allocation of 20 per cent of the Fund for “strengthening of the forest and wildlife-related infrastructure and capacity building of the personnel of state forest departments”, Pani said there should be provisions for transparency in the utilisation of this money.

As the draft Rules are in the public domain for comments till March 15, the protest is a way of mobilising public opinion against them.

According to the Rules, managing compensatory afforestation activities will be done, “as per the working plan (and) with participation of local people, (which) shall be taken up in consultation with the Gram Sabha or Van Sanrakshan Samiti or Village Forest Committee (VFC).”

“There is a difference between consultation and consent. Moreover, VFCs aren’t statutory bodies. The Forest Rights Act (FRA) gives rights to the Gram Sabha and this is in violation of that law,” Giri Rao, who works with Vasundhara, a non-profit working on tribal rights in Odisha said.  

Rao also points out that the Rules do not take The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) into consideration.

“While most number of people affected by compensatory afforestation are in Schedule V areas, governed by the PESA Act, the Rules have nothing to say about the Act,” he said.

Please click here to read more.

Down to Earth, 20 February, 2018, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/tribal-organisations-protest-against-draft-caf-rules-59737


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