Agartala, Mar 26, 2023, TRIPURA TIMES Desk
Agartala, Mar 26: Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), an Autonomous academic institution of national eminence for research and training under the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India is conducting an impact study on "Forest Rights Act, 2006: An Assessment of Ground Reality" in seven Indian States - Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura. This impact study is sponsored by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) under the overall aegis of IIPA.
Dr. G. Mohapatra, Senior Assistant Professor of Sociology of the Institute is leading the impact study as Principal Investigator.
A team of three members from IIPA including Dr. Mohapatra, Abhishek Kumar Raghuvanshi, Research Officer, IIPA and Akshaya Mohapatra, Field Investigator visited Gomati district to conduct the impact study with the active support and cooperation received from state government’s Directorate of Tribal Welfare, and District Magistrate of Gomati.
Also, a team of four scholars from Tripura Central University namely, Prayas Debbarma, Bijoy Kumar Jamatia, Sumiel Tripura and Ruhit Bardhan are assisting as field investigators in collecting information about the process of implementation and impact of forest rights act on the tribal communities in the surveyed districts through the application of Survey CTO- a real time software.
While applying the ‘Theory of Change’ and a before and after approach, the study team is collecting information pertaining to the impact of the forest rights act in the improvements of socio-economic conditions of the tribal communities in the study area including: Goutamani para, Raiybari ADC village, Twibaklai Uttar Baramura and Darjeelingbari ADC village in Gomati district.
Over 150 Jamatia family from Raiyabari ADC village under Dhwajanagar tehsil have received title to community forest rights in the year 2019. Ten numbers of community RoFR patta were approved by the district level forest right committee with approximately four hectares of land per a group of 15 members.
Although the tribal villagers are using the community forest rights land for livelihood generating activities including natural rubber plantation, areca nut plantation, guava, pineapple, lemon and orange plantation etc they were demanding digitalisation of the community forest land.
The report including major observations and policy recommendations shall be shared with National Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs so that the knowledge of impact of FRA on the tribal and other traditional forest dwelling communities at the grassroots level can be disseminated at large.