Deulahudi Villagers Map Their Claim Under Forest Rights Act

Deulahudi, a small tribal village in Hrichandanpur Block of Keounjhar District n Odisha, India assembled for a participatory mapping exercise of their Community Forest Resources on 28th April 2013. The gathering was a field exercise carried out in their traditionally protected forest. The village is inhabited by the Kolha (also known as Munda or Ho) Tribe, recognized as one of the 62 Schedule Tribes in Odisha. According to village elders, the village consists of 40 households which are the descendants from 12 original families that settled in the village four generation back. The livelihood of the community is mostly based on gathering forest products.

Damburu Munda, Secretary of Forest Rights Committee of the Village, shared that while 59 individual forest rights claims were filed, only 44 titles were issued to the claimants for cultivation on forest land by district administration. They do not know the reason why the rest of the claims were not recognized.The villagers identified their Traditional Boundary with the prominent land marks and put it in the Sketch Map. They are collecting around 32 different minor forest products such as the mahua flower, mushrooms, char seed, siali and sal leaf (used as leaf plate), bamboo, tendu (fruit and leaf) within their customary boundary. The Forest Protection Committee is named after the village deity, Maa Disauli.

Petition to Halt Mining on Mountain Range in Odisha

The Mining Zone Peoples' Solidarity Group, an international research group focusing on new economic policy, has drafted a petition directed towards Sonia Gandhi, the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council, about grave concerns and environmental devastation resulting from iron ore mining in the sensitive Khandadhar mountain range in Odisha, India.

The full petition is copied below (unedited) and available for signing here.

Meeting on the Scope of BCPs in Bhubaneswar

Natural Justice and Vasundhara jointly organised a meeting on 22 February 2013 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha District, to discuss the scope of Biocultural Community Protocols (BCPs) in asserting community rights. The meeting was facilitated by Sankar Pani (Natural Justice) and was attended by representatives from various civil society organisations working in Odisha. 

Mr Y Giri Rao (Vasundhara) welcomed participants and presented the keynote address. Kabir Bavikatte (Natural Justice) detailed the jurisprudence of BCPs and how they have been used by various communities across the globe in articulating and asserting their stewardship rights. Pratap Mohanty (Vasundhara) spoke on how BCPs can be used as tools in claiming habitat rights for particularly vulnerable tribal communities such as the Juang, Paudibhuyan and Chuktia Bhunjia. 

Bhajaman Mahant (Jivan Vikas) presented on the impact of extractive industries on Paudibhuyan Communities and how the community is further alienated by the compensatory afforestation programmes on community land. Sricharan Behera emphasised how BCPs can be used to preserve community knowledge. He also asked how the traditional knowledge related to the production of organic turmeric in Kondhamal can be protected and patented. 

Sambandh, a local organization working with traditional healers, presented on the biocultural practices of traditional healers around the sustainable use and conservation of medicinal plants. Priyabrat Satpathy (Action Aid), lawyer and activist Chandranath Dani, Dillip Das (Antoday), Pravat Mishra (RCDC) also participated in the discussions.

Paudibhuyan Community Meeting on Extractives - Odisha

In a meeting of the Paudibhuyan Community held in Kuanar Village, Keonjhar District, Odisha, India on 11 January 2012, community members raised serious concerns about mining and its impact on the environment and Indigenous communities in neighbouring areas. The government has begun to allot land in the area for prospecting and participants especially expressed concern that the sacred Khandadhar Mountain would be threatened. A company has begun erecting pillars in the area without any community consultation and without sharing information on the potential impact of mining on the local environment, community livelihoods and culture. Keonjhar Integrated Rural Development and Training Institute (KIRDTI), a local NGO, and Sankar Pani of Natural Justice participated in the meeting and suggested steps for how the community can utilise various legal instruments to protect community resources, including: 

• Determining which companies have been allotted permits and clearances for mining in the region; 
• Seeking the declaration of Khandadhar Mountain as a Heritage Site under the Biodiversity Act; 
• Seeking the declaration of the region as Eco-Sensitive Area under the Environment Protection Act; 
• Pursuing the recognition of community rights and habitat rights for the community as Indigenous Communities under the Forest Rights Act.

Paudibhuyan Community of Odisha to Draft BCP

The traditional leaders of the Paudibhuyan community of the Khandadhar region of Sundergarh District in Odisha gathered on 24 December 2012 to prepare a strategy to protect their territory and culture. The meeting was facilitated by Jivan Vikas, a local NGO, and Sankar Pani of Natural Justice. Paudibhuyan is one of the thirteen Primarily Vulnerable Tribal Groups of Odisha, and its population is sharply declining due to various reasons. The community is concentrated in small pockets in the Sundergarh, Keounjhar, Deogaarh and Dhenkanal Districts. At the meeting, the elders of the community shared their rich cultural heritage and traditional knowledge which they have fostered for generations and encouraged their successors to preserve and protect their traditional knowledge. They also raised concerns about various threats to common resources, especially emphasising the impact of mining on local bodies of water. 

The community leaders resolved to draft a biocultural community protocol to record their traditional rights and resources. They demanded recognition of their habitat rights and community rights under Forest Rights Act. They recalled their traditional herbal medicines and recited their traditional folk songs and emphasised the need to preserve them for future generations.