January 10, 2008
A long awaited promise of the ruling alliance has finally been
notified, the forest Rights Act has gone in the favour of the
tribals, the right allows tribals legal rights over forest land.
The notification of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional
Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, popularly
called the Forests Rights Act, initiates the laborious process
of identifying the beneficiaries of the measure across 17 states.
According to the Government around 10 million forest dwellers,
mainly tribals, will be benefited by the law, which will apply
to all those who have occupied forest lands till December 13,
2005.
The government also issued a notification, identifying the
28 tiger reserves that will be excluded from the purview of
the Act and lead to eviction of one million people from these
reserves in the country