Ganjam: As many as 6,000 villagers who live in 38 forest and unsurveyed villages in Odisha’s Ganjam district will be benefited as their villages have been granted revenue status under the Forest Right Act and Orissa Survey and Settlement Act, said a source.
These 38 villages have received their new status after over five years, with the process being started in 2017 to achieve so, according to a statement by the district administration.
The newly recognised revenue villages are spread across two subdivisions — Chhatrapur and Bhanjanagar. These villages fall under four blocks — Polasara (13 villages), Beguniapada (5), Surada (13) and Dharakote (7).
Previously, 14 other forest villages of three Odisha districts — Dhenkanal (12), Angul (1) and Deogarh (1) — have already been converted into revenue villages.
Notably, there are as many as 458 forest and unsurveyed villages in Odisha, according to the state government.
It should be noted that the 1878 amendment to the Forest Act divided India’s forests into three categories: reserved, protected, and village forests.
According to the new regulations, some people were allowed to live in restricted forests as long as they offered the forest department free labour to chop and transport trees and guard against forest fires. These woodlands eventually earned the name ‘forest villages’.
The former United Progressive Alliance government in 2013 acknowledged the settlement and conversion of all forest villages, unsurveyed villages, etc into revenue villages under Section 3(1)(h) of the FRA, 2006.
PNN