DLC overrules forest dept, ayes ‘ineligible’ IFR claim.

Times of India: Vijay Pijarkar: Nagpur: Saturday, January 08, 2022.

Yawatmal district-level committee (DLC) has overruled forest department’s objection to granting to an individual. The ‘ineligible’ claim will lead to loss of 4 hectares of forest land in Pusad forest division. Information received under the RTI Act reveals that while granting individual forest right (IFR), under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, to one Annapurna Vasanta Rathod, a resident of Kumbhari (Hanuman Nagar), Pusad, rules were not

The IFR to Rathod was granted on November 28, 2020, by the DLC and by the sub-divisional level committee (SDLC) in 2019, despite reports by the forest officials that no encroachment was done on the forest land. 

Since FRA is not a law relating to regularization of encroachments, but rather a law for recognition and vesting of forest rights in genuine claimants existing as on December 13, 2005 cut-off date. In Rathod’s case, the opposite has happened. First, the farmer claimed the forest land and now he is clearing the forest for cultivation, which is illegal. However, any fresh encroachment that comes to the notice of the state forest department would be treated under the applicable provisions of the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927, and other state-level laws. RTI reply reveals that the RFO concerned had done spot panchnama and submitted report on November 3, 2019. The report says the forest land on which Rathod has staked IFR claim falls in reserve forest compartment number 831 and is spread in 97.31 hectares. The forest land is adjoining Rathod’s private land in survey number 202.

The 4-hectare land which Rathod is claiming is still a forest and no crop hRathod is claiming is still a forest and no crop has been cultivated. In 2010, the forest department had taken up plantations in 25 hectares of land. The ACF too submitted a negative report to the deputy conservator of forest, who is also a member of the DLC. “Based on the reports, I had opposed the claim of Rathod, but the district collector cleared the IFR. As per Section 6 (6) of the FRA, the decision of the DLC is final and binding. Therefore, the statutory process of appeal ends with the DLC,” said AL Sonkusre, deputy conservator, Pusad. “The matter can only be revisited in the court of law, which seems to be difficult,” said forest officials who did not want to be quoted.