ગુજરાતી
English
Ahmedabad, August 8, 2024
1,02,615 claims have been approved by the state government under the Forest Rights Act-2006, in which a total of 5,69,332 hectares of land has been given for cultivation. According to Census 2011 data, a total of 18,37,844 tribal families live in forests in the state.
Even though they have been tilling land for 60 years, they are working in government offices that cannot be named. Despite repeated appeals, the silence of the system is becoming akin to indifference towards such forest dwellers.
Since the implementation of the Act in 2008, 1,82,869 individual claims have been filed so far, out of which 97,824 claims have been approved. 67,246 hectares (1,66,168 acres) of land area was approved. On an average, 1.45 hectares of land has been given. In which a maximum of 4 hectares of land has been given.
The Umargam tribe of Ambaji lives in 4 thousand villages in 53 talukas of 14 districts of Patti.
As of 18 July 2020, the Vijay Rupani government had given 1,49,540 acres of land to 91,400 individuals. This simply means that Bhupendra Patel’s government has given 16,628 acres of land to 6,424 people.
Community purpose
Out of 7187 community claims, 4791 claims were approved and 5,02,086 hectares of land was given. In which 1 hectare of land was given per facility for forest land and infrastructure for the purpose of collecting wild products, taking fish or other products from reservoirs and grazing etc. 4,569 collective claims were approved by Vijay Rupani’s government.
In 2019, a court ordered the removal of those living in the country’s forests without legal permission. A total of 1.30 lakh families in Gujarat were to be given rights. There are 1.83 lakh tribal families in Gujarat. Out of which only 53 thousand families were given permission.
The Gujarat High Court ordered a re-examination of all the claims. But the BJP government has not verified it. According to the details presented in the Supreme Court, 1,68,899 claims were made by the tribals of Gujarat and 13,970 claims by OTFD. The court has asked the Chief Secretary of the state how much action was taken after the last stage of cancellation of claims.
