NEW DELHI: Shocked that a government committee granted " community forest rights " (CFR) to just one person on seven hectare of forest land, the tribals of Vinega village in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh have decided to move National Green Tribunal (NGT).Community forest rights are granted to forest communities for grazing, use of water sources, collection of forest produce and other traditional practices of forest dwelling communities. The Sahariya tribals of Vinega village say Bajranand Maharaj, a religious leader who has been granted CFR, is neither a forest dweller as defined under the forest rights act nor a member of a scheduled tribe. Besides, CFR are always granted to a community and the name of an individual cannot be mentioned on the CFR document.According to the tribals, the district level committee on forest rights - comprising the forest officer, the tribal welfare officer and the district collector - granted CFR in Vinega village Barjanand Maharaj on May 15, 2015. The CFR document issued by the committee states that the CFR title has been issued to one—Bajranand Maharaj along with other members of the gram sabha over about 7 ha forest land.The scam came to light when 62 tribals of Vinega village were given individual forest rights to build homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana on forest land just outside the periphery of the land under CFR. Pathranand, a member of the religious organisation and a disciple of Bajranand, moved the NGT against the villagers.In his petition, Pathranand said the gram sabha, the applicant and other members (of the religious group) have been granted community forest rights vide a lease deed for traditional forest activities including cattle grazing, gaushala, right of satsang pooja, use of water sources and others and raising dwelling units (by villagers and zilla panchayat, which is building homes for them) was in its violation.Forest rights experts agree that CFR cannot be granted in an individual's name and the CFR document cannot be a 'lease deed' as mentioned in the application filed before NGT."The name of any individual should not be mentioned in the CFR title. It's illegal. It can be easily misused by the individual," said Tushar Dash, an expert on forest rights.Ramavtar Adivasi, whose forest rights in Vinega have been recognised recently, said the ashram people had started taking over all forest land. "Now they are not even letting us build our own homes. All tribals from the area have made representations to the collector and we will now go to NGT," he said.Sanjay Bechain of Sahariya Kranti that works with the community said representations against Bajranand have also gone to superintendent of police but no action was taken so far.

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