Forest rights act

• 1. Forest Rights :Forest Rights means the forest rights referred to insection-3 of the Forest Rights Act.Forest Land :Means land of any description falling within anyforest area and includes unclassified forests, un-demarcated forests, existing or deemed forests,protected forests, reserved forests, sanctuariesand National parks.

2. Individual Forest Rightsu/s-3(1)(a)(b).Community Forest Rightsu/s-3(1)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(g)(h)(i)(j)(k)(l)(m).Facilities managed by Govt.u/s-3(2) (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(g)(h)(i)(j)(k)(l)(m) 3. Notwithstanding anything contained in the Forest (Conservation) Act,1980, theCentral Government shall provide for diversion of forest land for the followingfacilities managed by the government which involve felling of trees not exceedingseventy-five trees per hectare, namely :-a) schools;b) dispensary or hospital;c) anganwadis;d) fair price shops;e) electric and telecommunication lines;f) tanks and other minor water bodies;g) drinking water supply and water pipelines;h) water or rain water harvesting structures;i) minor irrigation canals;j) non-conventional source of energy;k) skill up-gradation or vocational training centeres;l) roads; andm) community centeres : 4. 1) Forest land to be diverted for thepurposes mentioned is less than1 ha. in each case.2) The clearance of suchdevelopmental projects shall besubjected to the condition thatthe same is recommended by theGram Sabha (a quorum of 50% ofthe member of Gram Sabhashould be present). 5. User Agency :Means a Department of theCentral or State Governmentor a District Panchayat makinga request for diversion offorest land for developmentalprojects managed by theGovernment as specified insub-sectioin (2) of Section-3 ofthe Act. 6. Submission of Proposal by User Agency :Every User Agency, that wants to use any forest land forany developmental project, specified in Section-3(2) ofthe Act, shall make a proposal in the appropriate formappended, i.e. Form-A, and place it before the generalassembly of the concerned Gram Sabha for adopting aresolution to that effect and submit the Form-A withGram Sabha resolution and a location map of the projectin scale 1:50000, before the Range Officer. He willintimate no. of trees to be felled and justification forlocating the project in proposed forest land. 7. In order to translate the spirit of the Act,Government of Odisha recognised Palli Sabhaas Gram Sabha for the purpose of this Act.Besides, all forest villages, habitations orsettlements located inside the forest land andunsurveyed villages have been declared as GramSabha and circulars issued for constitution ofFRCs in such Gram Sabhas (a total of 589habitations, with 1.99 lakh population of whichST constitutes 92%) 8. Submission of Proposalby User Agency :On receipt of arecommendation of theproposal by the Gram Sabha,the User Agency will submit theproposal to the concernedRange Forest Officer (RFO) ofthe area, along with theresolution adopted by theGram Sabha. 9. Inspection & Opinion of Range Forest Officer :The Range Forest Officer concerned will carry out theinspection of the proposed area to give his opinion on theacceptance of the proposal.The Range Forest Officer concerned will submit theproposal and his recommendation to the concernedDivisional Forest Officer in Form-B appended, along withhis site inspection report and his opinion within threeweeks from the date of receipt of complete proposal fromthe User Agency. 10. Inspection & Opinion of Divisional Forest Officer :The Divisional Forest Officer concerned will consider theproposal, and if he agrees, he will accord his approval andcommunicate his decision to the Range Forest Officerconcerned with a copy to the Chairperson of the District LevelCommittee, within four weeks from the date of receipt of theproposal from the Range Forest Officer. 11. Acceptance by Divisional Forest Officer :The Divisional Forest Officer concerned will consider the proposal,and if he agrees, he will accord his approval and communicate hisdecision to the Range Forest Officer concerned with a copy to theChairperson of the District Level Committee, within four weeks fromthe date of receipt of the proposal from the Range Forest Officer.After receipt of the approval from the concerned DFO, the RFO willdemarcate the area of the forest land approved for diversion andhand over the same to the User Agency under the supervision ofthe Gram Sabha. 12. Decision of District Level Committee :If the DFO concerned does not approve the proposal submitted bythe User Agency through the RFO, he shall forward the proposal tothe District Level Committee for a final decision.The District Level Committee will meet and take a final decision,with at least 1/3rd quorum, and convey the decision to the DFO forimplementation and correction of records and map if the proposalis accepted.