GH villagers and forest dept at loggerheads

TURA: Villages falling under the Rongjeng Reserve forests are at loggerheads with the forest department over the latter’s halt to the use of the land for works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment guarantee Act.
A total of eight Village Employment Councils have issued a joint petition to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma complaining about denial of work under MGNREGA.
These Village Employment Councils falling under the Rongjeng, Darugre, Nengring gittim and Dambo Reserve Forests complain they have not been allotted any work for the year 2018-2019 and blame it on the Forest and wildlife department which term any agricultural or other human activity illegal inside reserve forests as per national and state guidelines related to preservation of reserve forests.
“There are close to a thousand households under the eight VECS and the job card holders were denied work such as piggery sheds and arecanut plantations by the implementing agency due to a report from the forest and wildlife department,” stated the petition.
The petitioners claim that they have been undertaking similar projects under MGNREGA  without any objections since 2008 and it was only recently that forest and wildlife officials have raised objections.
However, forest officials in the knowhow maintain that it is illegal for any form of activity in reserve forests across the country and point out that rising human activity has fuelled illegal felling of trees inside these reserves.
The villagers, on the other hand, point out that a lack of coordination between the forest officials and the forest reserve dwellers has led to large scale felling of trees by smugglers.
“We have detected many illegal felling inside the forests many a times. Without our cooperation the forest cover would have long disappeared. Despite our good work, the forest department failed to seek cooperation from us and instead curtailed our employment and livelihood opportunities,” claim the villagers.