Recognition of tribal rights over non-timber forest products (NTFPs) would accelerate empowerment of the poor and marginalised. Comment.

Forest rights act , 2006 brought following rights tribal, who are historically being exploited and excluded from their home lands:

Rights over forest land for habitation and cultivation, 
Right of ownership, access to collect, use, and dispose of minor forest produce, 
Right to govern and manage any community forest resource which they have been traditionally conserving for sustainable use.

Potential:-

* 275 million people depend on NTFPs with a turnover of at least Rs 6,000 crore per annum. There is a strong potential to scale up NTFP collection and processing.

* A source of development and poverty alleviation.

* Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, where community rights under FRA have been implemented at scale, with almost 5.86 lakh hectares of forests being transferred to the jurisdiction of gram sabhas. 

* Information from 247 villages from this region reveals how ownership over minor forest produce, specially tendu leaves and bamboo, has improved the economic condition of forest dwellers. These villages earned a total of nearly Rs 35 crore in 2017 by selling NTFPs.

* Due to the increased income, socio-economic status has increased, which in-turned has reduced migration and increased reverse-migration, which is good sign incase of tribals, who are in general suffered from human trafficking, exploitation, oppression, forced labour and other forms of exploitation due to migration. 

* The recognition of rights over forests and forest products has transferred the decision-making power to communities to decide when, where, how and to whom to sell their non-timber forest products and how to govern their forests. 

* The FRA also fosters democratic control over customary forests by forest-dependent communities, ensuring more effective, sustainable and people-oriented forest conservation, management and restoration. For instance, in the aforementioned districts in the Vidarbha region, the recognition of community rights over forest resources and land has led to dramatic reduction in incidence of forest fires. The forest cover regeneration has improved and indiscriminate felling and diversion of forests has been contested.

* A report of the Rights and Resources Initiative (2015) suggests that if the FRA is implemented properly, it could lead to the recognition of the rights of at least 150 million forest-dwelling people over 40 million hectares of forestland in more than 1,70,000 villages. The economic impact of this could be huge in rural areas as NTFPs constitute about 20 per cent to 40 per cent of the annual income of forest dwellers. It provides them critical subsistence during the lean seasons, particularly for tribal groups such as hunter-gatherers, and the landless. Given that most of the NTFPs are collected, used and sold by women, it would also lead to financial and social empowerment for millions of women.

In this way, Forest Rights become boon for the socio-economic development of Tribal People and also ensures the Protection and sustainable growth of forest land in India.