BJP govt in Chhattisgarh conspiring to systematically weaken Forest Rights Act: Cong

The opposition party also alleged that the "true intention" of the BJP government was to evict the tribals from their forests and hand over these areas to their "favoured" industrialists.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh accused the BJP government in Chhattisgarh of conspiring to "systematically weaken" the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

"The Forest Rights Act was introduced to correct the historical injustices faced by tribal and forest-dwelling communities. Under this law, village assemblies have been granted the right to conserve, manage, and utilise their traditional forests," the former environment minister said in a post in Hindi on X.

Recently, the forest department of the BJP government in Chhattisgarh issued a letter declaring itself the 'nodal agency' and announced the implementation of its 'working plan' for forest management, he said.

"This move by the government disregards the rights of all village assemblies that have already been recognised under the Forest Rights Act. It is not only against the fundamental spirit of the law but also a conspiracy to overturn the rights that communities have achieved after years of struggle," Ramesh alleged.

"This is a direct attack on the legal rights of tribal communities, the democratic framework, and the ecological foundation of forests," the Congress leader said.

It is noteworthy that, at the central level, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been designated as the nodal agency for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act.

However, here, the BJP government has made the forest department the nodal agency, Ramesh underlined.

"From an environmental perspective, this centralisation is extremely dangerous. Forest-dwelling communities have long been reliable protectors of biodiversity. Excluding them from the decision-making process is akin to jeopardising the ecological balance and the safety of forests."

"This move by the government is also against the spirit of local governance and democracy. The village assembly, which is a statutory entity under the Forest Rights Act, has the right to make final decisions. However, through this move, the government is attempting to limit its role and reduce it to merely an advisory body," the Congress leader claimed.

"In reality, the true intention of the BJP government is to evict tribals from their forests and hand over these areas to their favoured industrialists," Ramesh alleged.

"On the pretext of terms like 'scientific management' and 'working plan,' the real game is to legitimise illegal deforestation, open plunder of valuable minerals, and the takeover of resources by industrialists," he claimed.

Ramesh also shared a media report which claimed that in May, the Chhattisgarh forest department issued a letter that effectively amounted to giving itself overarching powers to manage forests where communities' rights under the Forest Rights Act had already been recognised.