The Jammu Kashmir administration has said that it will implement the Forest Rights Act, 2006
The Forest Rights Act provides for the granting of rights of forest lands to forest dwellers. However, the rights conferred under this act shall be “heritable but not alienable or transferable”, he said.
This step is being taken in view of the large scale encroachment of huge forest lands and its illegal sale in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said departments of tribal affairs, and forest, ecology, and the environment started working on its implementation in October this year.
“It may be pointed out that the Forest Rights Act of 2006 provides for granting of rights to forest dwellers across the country,” the spokesperson said.
This central Act was, however, not applicable or implemented in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 14 years. It became applicable only after October 31, 2019.
On August 5, 2019, the Centre revoked the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two union territories — Jammu Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The spokesperson said it was decided that the ”survey of claimants” by the forest rights committees for assessing the nature and extent of rights being claimed at village level be completed by January 15, 2021, for their further submission to the respective sub-divisional committees.
The sub-divisional committees shall complete the process of scrutiny of claims and preparation of ”record of forest rights” by or before January 31, 2021.
Chief Secretary Subrahmanyam impressed upon the forest department to immediately constitute the four-tier committees — state-level monitoring committee, district-level committee, sub-divisional level committee, and forest rights committee — to implement the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in the UT.
For a periodic review of the process and procedures associated with the Forest Rights Act and Rules, the forest department was asked to devise a suitable review mechanism along with monitoring formats, the spokesperson said. PTI