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Thirty-eight unsurveyed and forest villages in Odisha’s coastal Ganjam district have been converted into revenue villages, according to a notification issued by the district magistrate on April 13, 2023.
The 38 villages have received their new status after over half a decade, with the process to do so having put in motion in 2017, according to a statement by the district administration.
The villages are spread across two subdivisions — Chatrapur and Bhanjannagar — and four tahasils or blocks — Polasara (13 villages), Beguniapada (5), Surada (13) and Dharakote (7).
They are now revenue villages under Section 2 (14) of the Orissa Survey and Settlement Act, 1958 and in pursuance of Section 3(1)(h) of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 or FRA, the notification by the magistrate stated.
The villages included in Polasara block are:
Those under Beguniapada block are:
Surada block includes the following villages:
The villages under Dharakote block are:
Besides these 38 villages, 14 other forest villages of three districts — Dhenkanal (12), Angul (1) and Deogarh (1) — have already been converted into revenue villages. There are 458 forest and unsurveyed villages in Odisha, according to the state government.
India’s forests were divided into three categories as per the 1878 amendement of the Forest Act authorised in 1865 under colonial British rule: Reserved, protected and village forests.
Under the new provisions, some villagers were permitted to reside in reserved forests, provided that they provided free labour for the forest department to cut and transport trees and protect forests from fires. Such forests came to be known as ‘forest villages.’
The erstwhile United Progressive Alliance government in 2013 recognised the settlement and conversion of all forest villages, old habitations, unsurveyed villages, etc into revenue villages as one of the rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers under Section 3(1)(h) of the FRA, 2006.
The process to convert the 38 Ganjam villages began in 2017 after Odisha’s ST & SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department sent a letter with the list of forest and unsurveyed villages whose status was to be changed.
“In December 2021, all the proposal case records were submitted to the Board of Revenue in Cuttack for approval. However, the Board returned the case records with certain compliances. Again, after another round of field work, all 38 proposal case records were resubmitted to the Board in Janary and February, 2022. After final scrutiny of all the case records, it finally approved the proposals of conversion of all the villages,” the statement noted.
Barna Baibhabha Panda, senior programme manager, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), which assisted the administration in the conversion process, told Down To Earth:
The District Welfare Office, led by Parikshita Dash, especially played a key role in coordination among various departments. Dash was instrumental in getting the case records of these villages approved by the Director (Land Records and Survey) in the Board of Revenue.
Along with the change in status of the villages, community forest rights have also been approved and the necessary documents handed to the concerned Gram Sabhas.
The mostly tribal residents of the villages will now also be able to avail all governmental benefits such as rights over land; caste, income and residence certificates and the right to purchase and sell land. Governmental institutions can also be established now in these villages.
“Individual and community land rights will enable improved access to resources like agricultural lands, forests, water bodies, pasture lands, etc by village communities. Secure tenure will facilitate investments in regeneration and conservation of forest and water resources which will enhance livelihoods opportunities in the long run,” Panda said.