Uttarakhand Cabinet Approves Forest Panchayat Amendment Rules

The state cabinet has approved the Forest Panchayat Amendment Rules under which the British-era laws for Van Panchayats have been amended for the first time to make them more powerful and self-reliant.

The state cabinet gave its clearance to the Forest Panchayat Amendment Rules on Thursday at its meeting here chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Secretary to the CM Shailesh Bagauli said.

Under the amended Van Panchayat rules, three-tier local bodies have also been linked to the forest management of Van Panchayats.

Uttarakhand is the only state in India where the Van Panchayat system is implemented.

It is a British-era community forest management organisation which has been operating since 1930.

There are a total of 11,217 forest panchayats in the state overseeing 4.52 lakh hectare forest area.

After the amendment, each Forest Panchayat now will have nine members. One member will be nominated by the village head and one member by the Biodiversity Management Committee.

In the forest panchayats which fall under the municipal body area, the municipality will be allowed to nominate one member of the forest panchayat.

In order to strengthen the Van Panchayats so they can market their produce independently, they have been given the rights to participate in herbal production, tree planting, water harvesting, forest fire prevention and eco-tourism in their respective areas.

They will be able to invest the income they earn from such activities in the maintenance of forests.

Under the new rules, the Forest Panchayats have also been given the right to issue movement or transportation passes for non-timber forest produce like flowers, leaves, herbs, and swing grass, among other items.