With a diverse and educated population than its neighbours, Nagri had to put up the toughest fight
Nagri Nagar Panchayat in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district managed to get forest rights for 676.15 hectares under the Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR) in 2021 — one of the first three Nagar Panchayats to be awarded the title in India. But the victory wasn’t easy.
The area within the traditional boundary determined by the local residents initially was higher than what they received. The ward sabha officials, along with civil society groups, put up a tough fight to secure rights over the entire land.
They had to get no-objection certificates from four neighbouring areas — the Chhipli Gram Panchayat, Bilbhadar Gram Panchayat, Tumbahra Nagar Panchayat and Churiyara Nagar Panchayat.
They got three NOCs but met with resistance at Tumbahra, said Naresh Chhedaiha, president of the new Community Forest Management Committee formed in Nagri.
“We circled around our Nagar Panchayat with a Global Positioning System-enabled device and reached Tumbahra road that touches the neighbouring Nagar Panchayat Tumbahra. The area around a small bridge on the road falls within our traditional boundary but the Tumbahra residents resisted,” Chhedaiha said.
In the end, they agreed to give up that land, said Chhedaiha. “We got scared when we saw them standing with sticks.”
Tumbahra and Churiyara Nagar Panchayats got the CFRR title along with Nagri on Adivasi Divas (August 9) last year. But the residents of Nagri had to struggle the most for their forest rights.
The Nagar Panchayats held at least 47 meetings over three years with tribal department and administrative officials over their demand for the title land, Saraswati Dhruv, another official of the committee, said, adding:
The mapping for Nagri was done in a day. It was an expensive affair — the drills and rigorous travelling we had to do to meet officers to get our claim for CFRR was tiring and burnt a hole in our pockets.
Nagri had a mixed population of Adivasis, Other Backward Classes and Muslims. The communities include Gonds, Halbas, Yadavs, Teli and Sahus.
The residents, however, were united on CFRR, said Chhedaiha.
Nagri also had residents from across different economic stratas unlike the remote Gram Sabhas under CFRR. A good population of the Adivasis dominant in Nagri are dependent on agriculture and forests for their livelihood.
However, the ratio of educated youth in Nagri was much higher compared to other units under CFRR in Dhamtari and Gariaband districts that Down To Earth (DTE) visited. Nagri ward sabha has access to hospitals and an institute of higher education in its neighbourhood of Chhipli.
A good section of the Nagar Panchayat had higher standards of living and bigger houses than their neighbours. More youngsters here had adapted the use of modern language over Chhattisgarhi in comparison to the dwellers of other FRA villages.
The forest area around Nagri, according to its residents, has 25 lakh varieties of trees and herbs. It must be half of the entire forest cover of Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Dhamtari, they said.
Unlike Tumbahra's residents who sounded confident to raise demands for getting 80 per cent profit share, Nagri Nagar Panchayat residents only expressed disappointment over the long wait for even the 20 per cent share they were to get from forest department on timber harvesting from March-April.
“I can produce accounts on when will Nagri ward sabha get the profit share on timber harvest from their forests only in one to two years,” Rupsingh Dhruv, local forest ranger, told DTE.
Officers of Nagri Community Forest Management Committee had alleged that the ranger is yet to provide clarity on how much timber was cut from forest for both fuel and sale by them, even after repetitive verifications.
Dhruv told DTE he would take around the same time for this information as well. He said he was not aware that after CFRR, it is mandatory for them to consult ward sabha to determine their profit share in sale of timber from their forests. He believed it is supposed to be a fixed share of 20 per cent they used to give them previously.
When Mayank Pandey, divisional forest officer (DFO), Dhamtari, was asked about the profit shared with Nagri and Tumbahra in 2021, he denied having records. Dhamtari’s former DFO, Satovisha Samajder, however, said that the share was 20 per cent and was transferred to Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) in November, 2021. “In November, for entire Dhamtari a profit sharing of over Rs 3 lakh was given. I would not be able to tell you how much amount specifically went for the people of Nagri and Tumbahra,” Samajder said.
Under Joint Forest Management (JFM), the forest department fells trees and auctions them. JFMC are promised a 20 per cent share in timber revenue, as per the National Forest Policy of 1988, while the rest goes to the forest department. But activists say that once CFRR is accepted, the JFM system lapses.
The forest department’s officials’ statements above bear testimony to a reality. They show that in Chhattisgarh, how they even hesitate to recognise the gram sabha-formed Community Forest Management Committee and to streamline operation of JFM institutions with it.
Among the geographical units across Chhattisgarh that have locked horns with the administration to sell tendu leaves independently, Rajnandgaon and Kanker are the only districts in Chhattisgarh in the process of making this demand turn into a reality by fighting the tough fight.
Places like Tumbahra and Karka in Dhamtari district, where gathering of tendu leaves is not prohibited, only support the demand but are not actively fighting like Rajnandgaon.
Tendu leaf collectors in Chhattisgarh alleged that the government gives them a lower price for the leaves even after fetching a higher price for it in the open market.
The Aadivasis, after having obtained forest rights leases under Forest Rights Act, 2006, demand to sell tendu leaves independently with permission from Gram Sabhas and make good profit.
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