Villagers unaware of forest rights find it ‘too good to be true’

The residents of Bidapaju village in Odisha’s Nayagarh district were not even aware of the forest rights act (FRA) until 2020, even though it was enacted 14 years ago. In fact, the 150 residents in 30 households of the village refused to believe it when informed by a non-profit. 

“It seemed too good to be true,” said Bhagwat Nayak, a farmer in the village. “But the NGO volunteers kept visiting the village and showed us the papers of other villages that had received the titles until we believed them.” 

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, is geared towards protecting the rights of forest-dwelling communities to access and manage forests. But many villages like Bidapaju are still unaware of their rights. 

In 2020, the forest department officials marked 84 trees in the woods near the village to be chopped down and sold for timber. The clueless villagers had no say in the matter. 

So when volunteers of Nirman, an NGO working on forest rights, told the residents about the Act, they were sceptical. It took several meetings and readings of the FRA preamble and text to convince them.

Nayagarh Divisional Forest Officer Kshama Sarangi echoed concerns of forest departments in other states about the FRA. Sarangi said she preferred Van Suraksha Samiti (VSS) in villages over community forest resource rights (CFRR). 

“Giving ownership to locals restricts the forest department’s activities. We are working with the villagers where the titles have been given and making management plans for resources,” she told DTE over the phone. 

She, however, did not answer why the villagers were kept in the dark about their rights for the last 14 years. 

The forest department tried to convince the Bidapaju locals to make a VSS and promised Rs 1.5 lakh to the committee for forest protection.

“We would have been voiceless under the VSS despite being the rightful owners of the forest, so we did not agree,” said 68-year-old Nayak. “We had the law on our side, protested vehemently and did not let the department cut even a single tree.”

At first, the villagers were convinced the NGO was scamming them. “We had a tough time convincing the villagers that FRA guaranteed them their traditional rights and the jungle was theirs,” said Ravi Narayan Parida, programme officer at NGO Nirmaan. 

“There are many such villages in the state that are still unaware of the Act and the forest department takes advantage of this. Instead of updating them, the department keeps the forest under their control till local NGOs inform the villagers of their rights,” Parida added. 

However, not all was smooth sailing after the villagers were informed. The next hurdle came while mapping the village boundary to apply for the forest rights. 

“In August 2021, the village elders showed us the traditional village boundary. The adjacent village, Manjari, was also doing the same,” said Prahalad Nayak, secretary of the Forest Management Committee. “A dispute broke out between the two villages over the boundary demarcation.”

The quarrel lasted two hours. But both villages understood the importance of coming to a compromise. 

“The villages settled on an old mango tree as a landmark for the boundary. The trunk became the centre point. One side of the trunk is our village land; the other side is theirs,” said Kumari Manshi, president of the Forest Management Committee of the village. 

A signboard demarcating the boundary, the area and other details made it official. “We have claimed 738 acres (298.65 hectares) of forest land under the CFRR,” Manshi said. 

Though the village is yet to receive the title, the villagers now feel responsible for the forest and have a sense of belonging. They have already prepared a management plan for forest produce and timber protection, conservation and use.

The villagers have started keeping a record of the bamboo and timber harvested for villagers’ personal use, Manshi said, showing DTE a pink receipt book.

“Whoever wishes to harvest timber must pay Rs 50 for one log and Re 1 for a bamboo stalk to the forest management committee,” she said. 

“The request should be submitted to the Gram Sabha, that will ensure that no one harvests more timber or bamboo than is necessary. Only then will the request be passed,” she added. The committee will use the income from the harvest for forest management and conservation.

This new sense of ownership has made them more careful of forest resources. The villagers said they are looking forward to fair and transparent transactions. 

“Earlier, even when we needed fuel-wood for cooking or for funerals, we’d have to grease palms with poultry or money. Now the money will be used for our own forest,” added Nandanayak. 

However, Sarangi added that sometimes, the FRA was misused and people not living in the forest were also granted titles. “A thorough check is needed before granting the titles to villages,” she said.

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