Bhubaneswar The Balasore district which is all set to go to the polls during the fourth phase of elections in the state is reported to have shown a dismal performance when it comes to granting forest rights to the deserving tribals and forest dwellers.
In a compilation of information relating to forest rights granted to the tribals and other traditional forest dwellers (OTFDs) received through government reports, RTI replies and other government records, Balasore district is in the lead when it comes to rejection of titles.
Y Giri Rao, one of the experts on tribal rights who analysed the data claims that Balasore is one of the districts of Odisha where more than 200 villages have been protecting and managing forests since 1980s. He however claims that there are very high rejection rates according to data.
He said, “Till date a single claim has not been recognised by the district. In fact 95 per cent of claims received by the forest protecting villages have been rejected due to opposition from the officials of the forest department.”
The analysis done by a national level think-tank named Community Forest Rights Learning and Action Group claims that only around 6 per cent households received titled under the Individual Forest Rights while more than 90 per cent of these titles were issued under the name of a woman.
The study also claims that many of these claims are rejected at the Gram Sabha level itself. The study claimed that 38 per cent of Individual Forest Rights have been rejected.
It was also claimed that out of the eight assembly constituencies in the district, only four – Nilagiri, Jaleswar, Simulia and Basta— have been declared to have distributed titles.
The study claims that the potential outreach of the Forest Rights Act in Balasore (Rural) for the ST population stood to 55.70 per cent. Talking about the community forest rights, the study claimed that in the district had a potential of 1162 claims while it received 82 claims out of which 78 were rejected and four are still pending with the authorities concerned.