Fifteen panchayats in the Kashmir Valley have passed resolutions declaring forests in their vicinity as ‘community’ forests, in line with the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006. The government has reacted with complete silence — leaving the gram sabha decisions impossible to implement. This has irked villagers and forest rights activists.
“When a gram sabha declares a forest to be a community forest, it means that the local community takes ownership and management control of that forest. The gram sabha is a village-level democratic institution in India. It has the power to declare forests as community-owned and determine how they will be managed and used,” says Dr Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, founder and chairperson of the J&K Forest Rights Coalition.