Consider the following statements:
- As per recent amendment to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, forest dwellers have the right to fell the bamboos grown on forest areas.
- As per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, bamboo is a minor forest produce.
- The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 allows ownership of minor forest produce to forest dwellers.
Which of the statements given above is / are correct?
This questions was previously asked in
UPSC CSP Previous Year Paper (2019)
1 and 2 only
Incorrect Answer2 and 3 only
Correct Answer1, 2 and 3
Incorrect AnswerExplanation:
The amendment Act removes bamboo as a tree from Section 2(7) of Indian Forest Act, 1927, which would ease transit and felling restrictions on bamboo in private lands. Moreover, the Act still has legal provisions, which prohibits unauthorised extraction of bamboo from the forest areas and empowers forest departments to prosecute any person or agency found to be doing so. Therefore, statement 1 is incorrect.
Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is defined under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, as all non-timber forest produce of plant origin, and includes bamboo, brushwood, stumps, canes, Tusser, cocoon, honey, waxes, Lac, tendu/kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tuber and the like. Therefore, statement 2 is correct.
The Forest Rights Act 2006 defines forest rights as inclusive of ‘Right of ownership, access to collect, use and dispose of minor forest produce which have traditionally been collected within or outside village boundaries’. Individuals, communities and gram sabhas having rights under this particular section of the Act will not only have the rights to use but also rights of ownership over MFPs. Therefore, statement 2 is correct.
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