Left parties' fax PM for execution of Forest Right Act

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Agartala, June 14 (UNI) Left parties in Tripura sent a number of fax messages to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today urging him to implement the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Right) Act 2005.

The CPI(M) and it's allies organised rallies across the state yesterday demanding immediate formulation of rules for safeguarding the tribal's rights under the act. It also criticised the Centre for delaying implementation of the act.

The Front launched a movement to generate public opinion to press for early implementation of the act in 11 tribal-dominated states, including the North East, to ensure the right of using forest produces.

Party activists accusing the Ministry of forests Environment and said, ''The Act has been delayed because of a concerted misinformation campaign by a section of ministry officials and so-called elite environmentalists.'' It also charged the forest authorities of some states with trampling on community rights in to expand their powers. Clashes occurred in Arunachal Pradesh after the forest officials' attempt to use Joint Forest Management procedure to take over community land.

Similarly, in Mizoram, the legal status of almost 50 per cent of land was in dispute while shifting cultivators in Mizoram and Tripura were facing repression and efforts were on to forcibly settle them on the edge of forest in the name of cluster village, they alleged.

''The issue has gained momentum as a response to a wave of brutal evictions across the country targeted against forest dwelling communities,'' Left activists said.

Talking to UNI here today state's Forest Minister Jitendra Choudhury said the government faced a serious problem in executing the Rs 311 crore project of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) due to non-implementation of the act.

According to the project, JBIC plans to invest Rs 311 crore in Tripura for Afforestation and Eco Restoration project for economic benefit of the tribals. It aims to rehabilitate the heavily degraded forest land, ravaged due to shifting cultivation and various human activities.

Fresh plantation and eco restoration along degraded forestland in reserve forest and proposed reserve forest areas of five-hill ranges of Tripura have been stalled with non-implementation of forest right act, Mr Choudhury stated.

Justifying foreign investment in plantation sector, he attributed influx from Bangladesh and population explosion as one of the main reasons of forestland degradation in Tripura. Besides, timber lifting, shifting cultivation, encroachment, grazing and forest fire also contributed to a huge forest loss in the state.

He, however, opined, since the rock surfaces of Tripura were of sedimentary origin, dislocation of soil had already taken a heavy toll. The cushioning effect of the forest had since gone, rainwater was lost in the form of surface run-off and consequently all the rivers and water bodies were silted, causing flood and affecting ground water recharge too.

UNI

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