In October the Himachal Van Adhikar Manch (a platform for civil society groups working on Forest Rights Act in Himachal Pradesh) conducted training sessions under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights), Act 2006 (FRA) in Sirmour and Lahaul districts. These meetings were organised by People Action for People in Need (PAPN) in Sirmour and Save Lahaul Spiti in Lahaul.
(Members of Himachal Van Adhikar Manch training villagers in Panogh, Sirmaur district on Forest Rights Act)
The first meeting was conducted in Panogh Gram Panchayat in Sirmour attended by 30 people. Gumaan Singh, 44, a farmer from Jarva Janeli panchayat said “People aren’t aware of the Act. We found out about it through civil society groups.” What emerged was a complete lack of will on the part of the government to spread awareness about the Act and see to its implementation. The training consisted of how to form forest right committees, the procedure for filling up the individual and community claim forms and proofs that need to be attached.
(Villagers in Gathadhar before the training. The session included procedures for forming Forest Rights Committees, filling up of community and individual forms)
The next training session was conducted in Gathadhar in Sirmour, attended by approximately 50 people. The situation in Gatadhar was tense as the Forest Department and Revenue Department had started demolitions of homes and marking out farms that they consider to be encroachments. However, it is this very land that people can claim as under Forest Rights Act. Madan Singh, a farmer from Kajwa village says that Forest Rights Committees were formed a year ago and claims had been sent to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee. However, no progress has been made on the matter. Sitaram Chauhan, a farmer in Gundy panchayat said “I found out about FRA a few months ago when the SDM sent a notice stating that the Gram Sabhas consent will be required if a road or school is to be constructed in the area under the provisions of Article 3(2) but there was no mention of individual rights.”
In Lahaul, on the first day a Jansabha was organised by Save Lahaul Spiti to raise awareness amongst people about different Acts and Rules like Nautod rules and FRA etc in tribal areas. In this Jansabha around 300 people participated, including women. On the second day a training was conducted for 30 FRCs members from 23 villages.
Lahaul too had a similar story. While some villagers had heard of FRA from the media and civil society groups, others didn’t know there was an Act that could empower them so. While 93 community claims have been handed out in Kaza as per government records but which was surprising because not a single community claim has been recognised in Himachal most probably these are the cases of forest land diversion under section 3(2) of the FRA, 2006 for village development activities. Captain Ravindra Nath Sena from Darcha said that although FRCs had been constituted in 2008 but have to be reconstituted as these had been formed at Panchayat level which was against the Act.
