Kashmir Impulse Desk
Srinagar, Aug 18
Member of Parliament Mian Altaf Ahmad, who served as forest minister in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir from 2009 to 2014, said on Tuesday that India’s Forest Rights Act was not applicable in the region before the constitutional changes of August 2019.
Altaf said the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 became applicable to Jammu and Kashmir after the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, extended central laws to the region from Oct. 31 that year.
“The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, is fully applicable in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir now,” he said, adding that he was forest minister in 2014 when the law was not in force in the region.
Altaf said that despite the absence of the central law before 2019, tribal communities including Gujjars and Bakarwals had traditionally been protected and had not faced systematic harassment or arbitrary evictions.
He said debate over forest rights needed to take account of the region’s history and urged authorities to ensure that any legal framework applied to J&K protected genuine forest dwellers and vulnerable nomadic families without creating excessive bureaucracy or difficulties.
His comments come amid continuing debate over land rights, forest conservation and implementation of the Forest Rights Act, which provides a legal framework for recognising the rights of eligible forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers.
Altaf said he was concerned about difficulties faced by some traditional forest dwellers, including eviction notices and what he described as administrative pressure.
He said nomadic Gujjar and Bakarwal communities and other traditional forest dwellers had protected forest resources for generations and maintained longstanding ties with the forest ecosystem.
“Before August 5, 2019, the Central Forest Rights Act was not applicable here, yet nobody harassed these vulnerable communities or rendered them homeless,” he said.
Altaf called for transparent and fair processing of claims under the law, with priority given to protecting legitimate rights and livelihoods.
He also urged genuine implementation of the legislation so that tribal and forest-dwelling communities were not subjected to unnecessary hardship.
The J&K administration on Wednesday issued fresh guidelines to streamline processing of forest rights claims while stepping up action against unauthorised occupation of forest land, officials said.
The Forest, Ecology, and Environment Department circular said all action concerning forest land must comply with the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
