Chopans of J&K continue to be excluded from Forest Rights Act

More than 20 years ago, the J&K Assembly adopted a resolution to include the Chopans in the Scheduled Tribes category. However, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been sitting on the resolution with successive governments in J&K failing to persuade the Centre in granting ST status to the community, writes RAJA MUZAFFAR BHAT.

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JAMMU and Kashmir's (J&K) pastoral community of Chopans continue to be denied the status of Scheduled Tribe (ST) despite the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006, commonly known as Forest Rights Act (FRA), recognising and vesting "the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded".

The Act provides a framework for "recording the forest rights so vested and the nature of evidence required for such recognition and vesting in respect of forest land".

Recently, J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha addressed functions in Srinagar and Jammu and said that the administration is working to safeguard the rights of tribals. He also handed over individual and community forest right certificates to some beneficiaries from the Gujjar, Bakarwal, Gaddi and Sippi communities.