Ministry of Tribal Affairs constitutes committee on Community Forest Resource Guidelines

The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs recently constituted a committee under NC Saxena, former member of Planning Commission of India. The Committee will examine and recommend Community Forest Resources (CFR) Guidelines. The Committee has been constituted under Forest Rights Act, 2006.

Why the Committee?

In 2016, the Tribal Affairs Ministry framed CFR in consultation with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. However, the guidelines faced several criticisms from tribal organizations all over India. They complained that the guidelines were too technical.

The Issue

The Forest Right Act, 2006 gives habitat rights to the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group and pre-agriculture communities. They shall access the resources in the area that are designated as their habitat. However, the act left it at the responsibility of the states to identify the habitats. Several states failed to recognize such habitats.

Therefore, the Committee will provide a report clarifying concepts and detail the procedures that make implementation of CFR guidelines easy and understandable.


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