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Nicobar project violates tribal rights : ST panel

  • April 30, 2023
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Nicobar project violates tribal rights : ST panel

Subject : Environment / Governance

Concept :

  • The NCST has cited alleged violations under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 with respect to the forest clearance granted for the Great Nicobar Island (GNI) Project.
  • The FRA provides for the recognition of wider community rights over forest land.
  • The legislation allows forest communities the right to control and manage the use of the forest land over which they hold titles and their consent is mandatory for diverting it.

Violations under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006

  • According to Rule of Forest Conservation Rules-2017 (FCR), any diversion of forest land would first require the District Collector to recognise and vest rights to locals under the FRA.
  • Only then do the rules permit authorities to seek consent of the now-rights-holding gram panchayats for the diversion of this land.
  • These provisions were envisioned to give primacy to rights of indigenous forest-dwelling communities.
  • However, the district administration did not receive or process a single claim over forest land under the FRA.
  • Instead, a special Gram Sabha meeting was called and a resolution was purportedly passed.
  • The resolution consented to diversion of the forest land adjacent to their villages for the purpose of the project.

NCST had also opposed the Forest (Conservation) Rules (FCR) 2022

  • FCR 2022 make a provision for private parties to cultivate plantations and sell them as land to companies who need to meet compensatory forestation targets.
  • The rules allow private developers to clear forests without first seeking the permission of the forest dwellers.
  • NCST opposed the FCR-2022, which had done away with the consent clause altogether.

Nil implementation of FRA

  • The Andaman and Nicobar administration had reported nil implementation of FRA.
  • The justification of the administration has been that the islands have the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Act, 1956 (PAT56).
  • This act already provides for the full protection of the interests of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes.
  • So, there is no claim as such for settlement under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
  • NCST claimed that, under the PAT56, a significant portion of the forest land in Great Nicobar has been marked as a Tribal Reserve.
  • Over these reserves, local tribespeople have been given rights to use and collect resources as and when needed for their daily sustenance.
  • However, the power of notification and de-notification of the land as a Tribal Reserve is solely with the administrator of the islands under PAT56.

For further notes on the GNI Project, refer – https://optimizeias.com/great-nicobar-project-2/

For further notes on the NCST, refer – https://optimizeias.com/ncst-functioning-with-less-than-50-of-sanctioned-strength-ministry-in-ls/

Environment Nicobar project violates tribal rights : ST panel

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