J&K halts forest eviction notices, tribal department to implement Forest Rights Act

The Jammu and Kashmir government has designated the Tribal Affairs department as the nodal agency for implementing the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, and directed the Forest department to stop issuing eviction notices to forest dwellers until all pending claims are verified. The decision was announced on Saturday by Javed Ahmed Rana, the Cabinet minister holding the Forest, Ecology and Environment and Tribal Affairs portfolios.

“No notices will be served by the J&K Forest Department to any member of forest dwellers, whether a Schedule Tribe or any other traditional forest dwellers living for decades. These dwellers will not be disturbed or evicted from the forest under occupation till the process of recognition and verification is complete,” Mr. Rana said.

The announcement comes months after a confrontation between the elected government and the Raj Bhavan over a forest eviction drive in Jammu’s Sunjwan, Bathindi, Raika, and Sidhra areas. That drive had triggered protests by BJP legislators, with the elected government accusing the Forest department of functioning under the directions of the Raj Bhavan. The latest order is seen as an attempt to settle the jurisdictional dispute and place implementation firmly under the elected government’s control.

Mr. Rana confirmed that the Tribal Affairs department, and not the Forest department, will now be responsible for implementing the FRA. A three-member Project Monitoring Unit has been established for this purpose. “No one will be evicted till a set procedure is followed. All the deputy commissioners will speed up the pending cases under the FRA,” he said.

The Forest Rights Act, officially the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, recognises the rights of forest-dwelling communities over land, forests, and resources that they have traditionally used. The Act provides a three-tier structure—Gram Sabha, Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLC), and District Level Committee—for receiving, verifying, and settling claims.

According to the 2011 Census, Jammu and Kashmir has a Scheduled Tribe population of 12.75 lakh, including 8.10 lakh in the Jammu division and 4.64 lakh in the Kashmir division. The government has stated that it is expediting the process of claim settlement through the statutory mechanism.

An official circular said the Gram Sabha is the statutory authority responsible for initiating the process of determining the nature and extent of individual and community forest rights under Section 6 of the Act. “The Gram Sabha is mandated to receive, scrutinize and verify claims, prepare maps of the recommended claims and forward its recommendations to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLC) for further examination and decision,” an official spokesman said.

In a separate development, J&K Legislative Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather held a public outreach camp at Kanidajan in the Charar-i-Sharief constituency. Villagers there raised concerns about alleged harassment from eviction notices issued by the Forest Department and obstruction of agricultural activities on lands that have been under their possession and cultivation for generations.

“No one would be allowed to act in violation of the provisions of the FRA. The rights of all eligible beneficiaries under the Act would be protected in letter and spirit adding that no undue harassment of villagers would be tolerated,” Mr. Rather said. He also cautioned that no individual should attempt to misuse the Act as a pretext for fresh encroachments on forest land or government property. “The law must be implemented fairly and transparently while safeguarding the rights of genuine beneficiaries,” he added.

The move is expected to bring clarity to the implementation of the FRA in the Union Territory, which has seen repeated tensions between conservation imperatives and the rights of traditional forest dwellers. The government has reiterated that the process will be guided by the law, and that evictions will not take place until all due procedures are followed.