Ownership rights

From controlling wildfires to restoring forest health, several Chhattisgarh villages use Community Forest Resource Rights to usher in a new forest management regime

- BHAGIRATH

THIS YEAR, Chhattisgarh is burning, with over 19,000 forest fires recorded in just the first four months—the highest in four years, suggest government data. Yet amid this crisis, some villages are holding the line. In Karlajhar, deep within the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, residents are battling flames, guarding their forests day and night, and restoring degraded patches. Their secret weapon is Community Forest Resource Rights (cfrr), a provision under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (fra), 2006, which recognises the traditional rights of forest dwellers over their forests. This tool is proving far more effective than conventional forest governance.

On the night of March 13, for instance, flames lit up the skies above Karlajhar. Within minutes, Karan Singh Nag had gathered a group of 15 other residents, many of them barefoot, and rushed into the forest to beat back the blaze.

For nearly three hours, they fought the fire, finally returning home after midnight, victorious. Five days later, another fire was swiftly contained after a WhatsApp alert mobilised the community. Nag says that there have been four or five fires in the forest this year alone. But due to the immediate community response, the damage has been contained. Gariaband district, where Karlajhar is located, reported 789 fires, while the UdantiSitanadi Tiger Reserve, spread across Gariaband and Dhamtari districts, saw 866.

THE RIGHT TOOL

Under fra, forest dwellers can demand three kinds of rights: individual forest rights, community forest rights and cfrr. While the first two provide individuals and villages access to forest resources, cfrr, under section 5 of fra, empowers gram sabhas (a council comprising all registered voters within a village or group of villages) to manage, conserve and protect their traditional forests.