Chhattisgarh seeks Centre’s help after Forest Department stalls community forest resource management plans

Weeks after the Chhattisgarh Forest Department stalled its own government’s efforts to empanel NGOs to help prepare and execute community forest resource (CFR) management plans as per a Central scheme’s guidelines, State authorities have written to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry seeking guidance on what to do next.

“The Office of the Commissioner [of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Welfare Department] has communicated the Forest Department’s arguments to the Centre and sought advice on the way forward. It is expected that the Tribal Welfare Department will also be writing to the Centre on this in a couple of days,” a Chhattisgarh government official told The Hindu on Wednesday (June 25, 2025).

CFR management plans are meant to be created by forest dwelling communities whose rights have been recognised under the Forest Rights Act, to outline how they will sustainably use forest resources in a way that supports livelihoods and conserves forests, benefiting the whole community. This tussle between Chhattisgarh departments seems to be part of a long-running battle over who controls forest resources — local tribal communities living in the forests or the Forest Department.

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Stops NGO empanelment

The confusion in the Chhattisgarh government over how to proceed with the implementation of CFR management plans arose from a communication issued by the Office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests on May 15, prohibiting “any department, non-governmental organisation, or private organisation” from “doing any work” in areas where community forest resource management rights have been granted. The Forest Department cited a 2020 circular that gave it the responsibility of “coordinating” on matters related to community forest resources rights.

Crucially, this communication came just as the Chhattisgarh government’s tribal welfare department was about to finalise a list of NGOs and civil society organisations to help Gram Sabhas prepare and execute community forest resource management and conservation plans, a provision for which was made in the Centre’s Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyaan (DAJGUA), launched in 2023.   

“The State government had already held consultative meetings with NGOs and CSOs early this year and the tribal welfare department had already prepared a draft list of NGOs that were to be empanelled for this purpose,” a source aware of the developments said.

Model CFR plans first

However, in prohibiting any department or NGOs from doing any work on CFR management, the State Forest Department cited a joint communication from the Union Ministries of Environment and Tribal Affairs in March 2024, which said that all CFR management plans should be implemented as per its 2023 guidelines.

It further clarified that the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry “plans to develop a few model CFR management plans” in consonance with the Environment Ministry’s National Working Plan Code, 2023 (NWPC) for “scientific forest management”, which can be used to train local officials, who can then help with CFR management plans’ integration with NWPC.

But according to the Forest Department’s reading, this joint communication required any CFR management plan to be in consonance with the NWPC and until the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry shares the model CFR management plans, no work on CFR management can be done. It further said that since it had received no word from the Tribal Affairs Ministry on this yet, it was prohibiting any department, or NGO from working on this.

‘Gram Sabhas have authority’

Notably, the Tribal Affairs Ministry’s 2023 guidelines on CFR Management under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 spelled out that the authority to prepare and approve plans for resource management and conservation rested entirely with the Community Forest Resource Management Committees (CFRMC), comprising members of Gram Sabhas.

It added that only after the Gram Sabhas approve the CFR management plans, should the Forest Department be consulted to make it align with their working code.

The Ministry’s communications on the guidelines further mandate that any modification to the plans to make it align with Forest Department’s working code should be made “as may be considered necessary by the committee (CFRMC)”, adding that the Gram Sabhas “may co-opt” Forest Department officers to help them develop the CFR management plans.