BENGALURU: A group of 63 retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers from different states on Thursday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, Union ministers and secretaries of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MTA), expressing their concern over the increasing misuse of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006.
They pointed out that in the recent past, some states have granted title/ patta over lakhs of acres of forest land by misusing loopholes in the rules, and ambiguous guidelines issued by the MTA. The retired officers said as per the FRA, claimants who were in possession of forest land as on December 13, 2005, are eligible for a grant of title over forest land.
Some states have given titles to forest encroachers who occupied forest land after the cut-off date, primarily on an oral statement of village elders and did not consider impartial and scientific evidence of satellite imageries showing the status of forest occupation prior to and after 2005.
Retd IFS officer BK Singh said this is the first time retired officers have penned a letter to the government. This is because there is gross misuse of land and rights. Cases of encroachment are being reported on a regular basis, in violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and Indian Forest Act, 1927.
The letter stated that ineligible communities have been granted rights without specifying the extent.