The department currently holds the right to harvest bamboo in the state. Its contention is that allowing villagers to cut bamboo will affect the sustainability of the produce as forest dwellers do not know the proper rules of harvest. Instead, the officials are ready to send the cut bamboo shoots or the proceeds from their sale to gram sabhas, from where they could be distribute to individuals or a community.
On April 28, the Union environment and forests minister gave the green signal to start the process of issuing transit licences to villagers so that they get the right to harvest and sell bamboo grown within their community areas. Ramesh, along chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, was speaking at a function organized in Menda-Lekha village in Gadchiroli. Even the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, also referred to as FRA, 2006, recognizes the right of ownership, access to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce including bamboo, by the villagers. Read the full report here.
Source: Sandeep Ashar, Times of India, Mumbai.
