New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) Over 150 tribal rights organizations and civil society networks have called upon the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to retract recent guidelines and advisories, which they argue weaken the authority of gram sabhas as outlined in the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. In a joint appeal dated August 21, the signatories asserted that the ministry’s interventions are "undermining the democratic governance framework, management, and conservation of community forest resources acknowledged under the FRA, 2006." They claimed that these measures favor a "parallel institutional structure for community forest resource management," supplanting gram sabha-led governance with a "techno-bureaucratic scheme that consolidates power in the hands of the forest department and environment ministry." Particularly objected were the "Guidelines for Conservation, Management and Sustainable Use of Community Forest Resources," introduced on September 12, 2023. The groups highlighted that these guidelines supplanted the 2015 guidelines, which unequivocally recognized the gram sabha's authority. The 2015 guidelines empowered gram sabhas to "freely and autonomously develop, decide, and implement the plan" for managing community forest resources. Contrarily, the 2023 guidelines allegedly "contradict this fundamental idea by undermining the institutional authority of gram sabha and its democratic governance framework." Concerns articulated include provisions for gram sabha meetings to be convened by the panchayat secretary, mandated coordination between the CFR management committee and the forest department, creation of a separate district-level CFR monitoring committee, and authorizing officials to initiate bank accounts for gram sabhas. The representation read: "CFR management is relegated to a bureaucratic scheme oversight instead of being overseen by a democratic institution, namely the gram sabha." The organizations also opposed the joint advisory of March 14, 2024, issued by the tribal ministry and the environment ministry. The advisory, they claimed, mirrored the 2023 guidelines and advocated for "model scientific CFR management plans, in line with the Working Plan Code 2023," with the forest department’s support. The representation emphasized that this "grants overarching powers to the forest department regarding community forest resource management and conservation" and recommended incorporating forest department officers into CFR management committees, which under the FRA are meant to be entities created solely by gram sabhas. The signatories pointed out that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) has been the nodal ministry for FRA enforcement since the 2006 amendment to the Government of India (Allocation of Business Rules), 1961, and it alone holds the authority to issue directions and clarifications under the Act. "By declaring and practicing joint responsibility on FRA-related matters, MoTA effectively abdicated its role against the law," the joint representation claimed. Moreover, it alleged that the environment ministry and state forest departments have "actively breached forest laws concerning the acknowledgment of forest rights" while notifying forests and protected areas or diverting forests for non-forest purposes—issues that necessitated the FRA’s enactment to rectify historic injustices. The submission accused MoTA of allowing the environment ministry to encroach upon its statutory mandate. As an example, the groups referenced a letter from the Chhattisgarh forest department, dated May 15, in which the department claimed to be the nodal agency for community forest resource rights implementation, citing the 2024 joint advisory. After protests, the order, which stated that no plan other than the environment ministry-sanctioned working plan could be executed in forest areas, was stayed. The groups said this episode illustrated how "these CFR guidelines and joint advisories have further sparked ground-level conflicts, emboldening the forest department to obstruct FRA implementation and infringe on gram sabha authority." The representation further criticized the inclusion of FRA activities under the PM-JU GUA mission, initiated in September 2024, claiming it reclassified FRA into "a beneficiary scheme." The mission, the groups argued, "has transformed the Forest Rights Act into a techno-managerial and bureaucratic exercise where gram sabhas' powers are bypassed by creating parallel structures." Calling MoTA’s actions "irresponsible, injudicious, and disappointing," the groups demand that the ministry immediately retract the September 2023 CFR guidelines and the March 2024 joint advisory, and restore the 2015 guidelines that preserved gram sabha authority. They urged the ministry to assert its primary powers under the FRA, direct states that any forest rights clarifications must be issued solely by MoTA, and ensure accountability for the environment ministry and its institutions regarding violations. The groups also urged directives for all state governments and relevant authorities to formally acknowledge a gram sabha as "the statutory authority under the Forest Rights Act and the governance, management, and conservation authority for community forest resource right areas." The submission, backed by 151 organizations and individuals, includes endorsements from the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch, All India Forum of Forest Movements, Gondwana Ganatantra Party, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Himdhara Collective, and actor and documentary filmmaker Suhasini Mulay.
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