As Forest Department intensifies its eviction drives to retrieve forest land in different areas of Jammu & Kashmir especially in North Kashmir , Central and South Kashmir a delegation of J&K RTI Movement (RTIM) and Climate Action Group-JKCAG led by Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat met Speaker of J&K Legislative Assembly Abdul Rahim Rather and submitted a memorandum to him urging to halt these drives as it violated the Forest Rights Act 2006.
As per a press release, Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat who was accompanied by Mushtaq Ahmad Lone District Coordinator RTI Movement Budgam had a detailed conversation with Speaker Mr A R Rather and informed him that Forest Rights Act FRA-2006 which was extended to Jammu & Kashmir around 6 years back and is a pro people legislation that gives legal protection to forest dwellers like Gujjars, Bakarwals , Chopans , Kashmiri or Dogri people living in the forest area for more than 75 years, but instead of rolling out this law the Forest Department is invoking Indian Forest Act 1927 which is subservient to FRA.
“Forest Department had started evicting forest dwellers in many places of J&K quoting Hon’ble J&K High Court order SAVE v/s J&K Govt and others dated 3.09.2020. It is important to mention that Forest Rights Act 2006 clearly mentions that this law has an overriding effect on other forest laws. The Forest Rights Act 2006 was extended to J&K post article 370 abrogation and the Govt of India claimed that benefits of central laws will reach out to people of J&K. Instead of making the Forest Rights Act 2006 operational and giving its benefits to people living in forest areas, the Forest Department is invoking Indian Forest Act 1927 and issuing eviction notices to people across J&K. The petition in High Court of J&K was filed by SAVE NGO in 2017 when FRA was not extended to J&K but when the eviction order was pronounced in September 2020 by that time FRA had been rolled out in UT & High Court was not updated about it. It is the duty of J&K Tribal Affairs Department to do this and we updated Hon’ble Speaker about all these legal requirements as Tribal Affairs Department is the nodal agency to implement FRA in J&,” said Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat.
The RTIM & JKCAG delegation also updated Speaker about the fact that in Wildlife First & Ors vs Union of India case (Civil Writ Petition No. 50 of 2008), the Supreme Court on February 13, 2019, ordered 16 states to evict over a million forest-dwelling and tribal families whose claims under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006 had been rejected.
Following massive protests and a modification request by the central government, the Supreme Court stayed the eviction order in just two weeks and directed a review of the rejected claims.
The central government filed a modification application stating that rejections suffered from serious procedural flaws and lacked proper due process, leading the Supreme Court to put the eviction directive on hold. “If these evictions have been put on hold by Hon’ble Supreme Court and Forest Rights Act 2006 is yet to be rolled out and is like a new born baby in Jammu & Kashmir how can Forest Department of J&K invoke J&K High Court’s orders and start issuing eviction notices to forest dwelling STs and other traditional forest dwellers -OTFDs ? We seek your kind intervention and urge upon you to take up this case with Chief Minister and Forest Minister of J&K,” reads the memorandum submitted by Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat.
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