The Forest Rights Act provides for the granting of rights of forest lands to forest dwellers. “It may be pointed out that the Forest Rights Act of 2006 provides for granting of rights to forest dwellers across the country,” the spokesperson said. It also empowers the holders of forest rights, and gram sabhas to protect wildlife, forest, biodiversity, catchment areas, water sources and other ecologically sensitive areas besides ensuring that the habitat of forest dwelling STs and other traditional forest dwellers is preserved. Chief Secretary Subrahmanyam impressed upon the forest department to immediately constitute the four-tier committees -- state level monitoring committee, district level committee, sub-divisional level committee, and forest rights committee -- to implement the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in the UT. For periodic review of the process and procedures associated with the Forest Rights Act and Rules, the forest department was asked to devise a suitable review mechanism along with monitoring formats, the spokesperson said.

Source: Hindustan Times November 18, 2020 19:18 UTC