Kinnaur tribals flay FRA non-implementation

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 7

Protesting against the non-implementation of the Forest Right Act, 2006, people from various villages of Kinnaur district on Thursday staged a major protest at the district headquarters of Reckong Peo.

Close to 1,500 people participated in a rally and a public meeting held at Reckong Peo to raise their voice against the injustice being meted out to them by terming them as illegal encroachers in complete violation of the Act.

The rally and public meeting were convened by the Him Lok Jagriti Manch and Zilla Van Adhikar Manch, a Kinnaur-based platform and supported by Himachal Van Adhikar Manch, Himdhara Collective and Himalaya Niti Abhiyan. A memorandum was submitted at the DC office with demand to immediately start processing the claims under the FRA from Kinnaur district.

“The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act and the Forest Rights Act was passed by Parliament in 2006 to address historical injustices and exclusion meted out to a large community of forest dwellers in India,” said RS Negi. He added that the tribal in Kinnaur are being denied the benefits under the FRA.

Negi pointed out that on April 6, 2015, the High Court ordered the removal of encroachments on “forest land” in the state within six months. This, he said, had triggered an eviction drive by the Forest Department and in upper Shimla, the Forest Department went to the extent of felling apple trees from orchards on “forest land”. In Kinnaur, 98 such notices have been served on so-called “encroachers”.

The people questioned the manner in which the Forest Department is implementing the orders of the High Court. He said a process of alienation of forest dwelling communities has intensified in the name of development, wildlife conservation, forest management, shrinking survival spaces of forest dependent people each time.