A Forest Village With Its Own Electricity” Natives of Borla Jharia, who are majorly from the Oraon tribe, under the guidance of social workers and experts, Mr Maliya and others, collected the water flowing through the hills by making the dam and producing electricity for their village.
It could happen after their panchayat Newar received the Community Forest Rights Act (CFRR) in 2021. They received CFRR under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) for 2400 hectares of the forest.
Many natives shared similar thoughts, “Before we had received CFRR, the forest department used to harass us. After we received CFRR, we feel independent as we have our rights. Now, no one rules us.”
They further said, “Earlier we had to take permission from the forest department for any development like ‘boulder check dam’ which was a tedious task. After CFRR, we take permission from gram Sabha (general assembly of all the people of a village).”
*The FRA, implemented in 2006, recognises the rights of the forest-dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources and provides scope for the forest dwellers to claim their rights over their forests.
I covered it in 2022.