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The Hindu
14 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Chhattisgarh seeks Centre's help after Forest Department stalls community forest resource management plans
Weeks after the Chhattisgarh Forest Department stalled its own government's efforts to empanel NGOs to help prepare and execute community forest resource (CFR) management plans as per a Central scheme's guidelines, State authorities have written to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry seeking guidance on what to do next. 'The Office of the Commissioner [of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Welfare Department] has communicated the Forest Department's arguments to the Centre and sought advice on the way forward. It is expected that the Tribal Welfare Department will also be writing to the Centre on this in a couple of days,' a Chhattisgarh government official told The Hindu on Wednesday (June 25, 2025). CFR management plans are meant to be created by forest dwelling communities whose rights have been recognised under the Forest Rights Act, to outline how they will sustainably use forest resources in a way that supports livelihoods and conserves forests, benefiting the whole community. This tussle between Chhattisgarh departments seems to be part of a long-running battle over who controls forest resources — local tribal communities living in the forests or the Forest Department. Also Read | Foremost priority is to ensure forest lease holders receive entitlements: Chhattisgarh CM Stops NGO empanelment The confusion in the Chhattisgarh government over how to proceed with the implementation of CFR management plans arose from a communication issued by the Office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests on May 15, prohibiting 'any department, non-governmental organisation, or private organisation' from 'doing any work' in areas where community forest resource management rights have been granted. The Forest Department cited a 2020 circular that gave it the responsibility of 'coordinating' on matters related to community forest resources rights. Crucially, this communication came just as the Chhattisgarh government's tribal welfare department was about to finalise a list of NGOs and civil society organisations to help Gram Sabhas prepare and execute community forest resource management and conservation plans, a provision for which was made in the Centre's Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyaan (DAJGUA), launched in 2023. 'The State government had already held consultative meetings with NGOs and CSOs early this year and the tribal welfare department had already prepared a draft list of NGOs that were to be empanelled for this purpose,' a source aware of the developments said. Model CFR plans first However, in prohibiting any department or NGOs from doing any work on CFR management, the State Forest Department cited a joint communication from the Union Ministries of Environment and Tribal Affairs in March 2024, which said that all CFR management plans should be implemented as per its 2023 guidelines. It further clarified that the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry 'plans to develop a few model CFR management plans' in consonance with the Environment Ministry's National Working Plan Code, 2023 (NWPC) for 'scientific forest management', which can be used to train local officials, who can then help with CFR management plans' integration with NWPC. But according to the Forest Department's reading, this joint communication required any CFR management plan to be in consonance with the NWPC and until the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry shares the model CFR management plans, no work on CFR management can be done. It further said that since it had received no word from the Tribal Affairs Ministry on this yet, it was prohibiting any department, or NGO from working on this. 'Gram Sabhas have authority' Notably, the Tribal Affairs Ministry's 2023 guidelines on CFR Management under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 spelled out that the authority to prepare and approve plans for resource management and conservation rested entirely with the Community Forest Resource Management Committees (CFRMC), comprising members of Gram Sabhas. It added that only after the Gram Sabhas approve the CFR management plans, should the Forest Department be consulted to make it align with their working code. The Ministry's communications on the guidelines further mandate that any modification to the plans to make it align with Forest Department's working code should be made 'as may be considered necessary by the committee (CFRMC)', adding that the Gram Sabhas 'may co-opt' Forest Department officers to help them develop the CFR management plans.
The Hindu
a day ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
More than 22,000 camps held in nine days to take DAJGUA to tribal villages
In the last nine days, the government has held more than 22,000 'Jan Seva' camps as part of its push to ensure saturation coverage of the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry's Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA). The Centre said it had reached over 53 lakh Scheduled Tribes (ST) individuals, helping them avail the benefits of the schemes. The DAJGUA package was launched in 2023 and brings together about 25 interventions from 17 line Ministries for full scheme saturation under various government programmes to about 68,000 villages dominated by ST communities. As part of this, the government is currently undertaking an information, education, and communication (IEC) outreach to over 5.5 crore tribals in more than one lakh villages and habitations of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) across 550 districts of the country. The DAJGUA programme is a 'central feature' of the Indian Government's celebration of the Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh being commemorated to mark the 150th birth anniversary of tribal icon Birsa Munda. The IEC campaign under DAJGUA was launched on June 15 and will go on till July 15. In the nine days of the campaign so far, the government said that through the Jan Seva camps, it had been able to achieve 1.38 lakh Aadhaar enrolments, 1.68 lakh Ayushmaan Bharat card registrations, 46,000 PM Kisan registrations, the addition of 22,000 PM Ujjwala beneficiaries, and 32,000 new PM Jan Dhan accounts. The government's big push on this scheme has come with Governors, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, and State Ministers taking the lead in launching and supporting the IEC campaign for the DAJGUA programme, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Ladakh, Governor Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel in Madhya Pradesh, and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam. In addition to the above-mentioned enrolments, the government has been helping people get other documents that may assist them in availing the benefits of government schemes. Some examples include helping people get caste certificates, domicile certificates, and Forest Rights Act pattas. 'DAJGUA provides legal aid, nutrition support, health check-ups, and the facilitation of Forest Rights Act (FRA) claims, while also onboarding tribal start-ups — making it a convergence-based model that exemplifies what proactive, inclusive governance can achieve,' the Centre said in a statement on Tuesday. 'This Abhiyan is a tribute to our tribal brothers and sisters who live in harmony with nature. It is not just an outreach programme — it is a revolution in inclusive governance,' the statement quoted Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram as saying.
