Paper: GS – III, Subject: Environment, Ecology and Disaster Management, Topic: Forest conservation, Issue: Strengthening Forest governance.
Context:
The Chhattisgarh Forest Department designated itself as the nodal agency for CFRR (Community Forest Resource Rights) implementation under Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, sparking controversy.
Key Highlights:
Forest Management in India:
- Centralised management: Forest management is historically centralized, top-down forestry focused on scientific forestry, timber extraction and harvesting of monocultures.
- Alienation: This alienated tribal communities and replaced diverse native forests with commercial species.
- Significance of CFRA: CFRR (Community Forest Resource Rights) gives gram sabhas the right to manage customary forests, decentralizing forest governance.
Current CFRR Implementation Stats:
- Over 10,000 gram sabhas received CFR titles. But fewer than 1,000 have management plans.
- This resistance stems from forest department’s non-cooperation and power retention tactics.
Issues with Chhattisgarh’s plan:
- Violation of FRA’s spirit: Nodal role usurped from Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), which is the rightful authority.
- Dilutes Gram Sabha: Forest department’s move limits gram sabhas’ autonomy to plan and manage forests.
- Exclusions: NGOs and local bodies are excluded from Chhattisgarh’s CFRR planning.
- Violates decentralisation spirit: Suggestion to align CFR plans with National Working Plan Code (NWPC) violates the FRA’s decentralization intent.
- Restricted access: Plans restrict access and change forest composition as NWPC compliance demands long, technical documents.
- Ignoring realities: Ignores ground realities and lacks adaptability to forest diversity and local needs
Conflict Between Two Approaches:
| Top-down management | Bottom-up governance |
| Bureaucratic and timber-focused. Detached from local livelihood needs | Integrated, flexible, and locally relevant. Responds to climate variability and community survival |
Way ahead:
- Management plans should reflect local community insights and Ecosystem-level focus (not just timber)
- MoTA must uphold its role and reject forest departments’ attempts to dominate CFR governance.
- Adapt the framework given under the Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan launched by Centre in 2023.
- Enable flexible, decentralized planning and support capacity-building of gram sabhas.
- Discard timber-oriented and bureaucratic forest control models.
Conclusion:
CFRR is key to reversing colonial-era forest injustices. In this context, Empowering gram sabhas, not forest departments, is essential for inclusive, sustainable, and just forest governance under the FRA.
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