Experts meet to finalise rules for implementing forest rights

New Delhi, Apr 27 (UNI) The expert group to finalise rules for the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act met here today to discuss various issues for operationalising its provisions.

The group consisted of representatives from the fields of environment, forest, wildlife, anthropology, tribal welfare, and central and state ministries. Five meetings in this regard have already been held.

The 29-member group headed by S R Sankaran, former Rural Development Secretary to the Government of India, also held consultations with the State Governments at Hyderabad, Pune, Ranchi, New Delhi and Shillong last month in order to take care of State-specific differences while framing the rules. It is now in the advanced stage of preparation of the draft rules and is expected to finalise the same shortly. The expert group was set up on February 12, 2007 and was asked to submit its recommendations within three months.

The Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 passed by Parliament during the last session and notified on January 2 2007, represents a major paradigm shift towards addressing concerns for providing tenurial security, livelihood and traditional rights to Scheduled Tribes and other traditional dwellers who have been living in forests for generations without any legal protection.

The Act recognises and vests forest rights and occupation in forest land to forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded. It also seeks to provide a framework for recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence required for such recognition.

UNI