In a development that, activists say, sets precedence for other tribal villages, Mendha-Lekha and Marda in Gadchiroli district have become the first villages under the Forest Rights Act (2006) to get community ownership of the forests around them.
Maharashtra Governor S. C. Jamir handed over the Record of Rights to the villagers at a function in Gadchiroli on Tuesday.
The Record of Rights recognises the villagers' rights to manage their forest, water, and the right to forest produce. It gives them ownership of the surrounding forest and allows them to graze cattle there, as well as to collect and store minor forest produce, except timber.
Mohan Hirabai Hiralal, a well-known social activist and environmentalist, says that granting tribals their traditional rights," is the only way with which the union government can put an end to insurgency."
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