Protected Area Network in Orissa - Vasundhara

sanctuary having no human habitation may be included in thesanctuary.During discussion with the local people and representatives of Praja SurakhyaSamiti in regards to the right settlement the following things they put forthbefore us:• “Land settlement was not carried out after 1962. During these period thestatus and ownership of land already changed. Without fresh survey &settlement district collector hold hearing meetings. We have put theissue before the district collector even we gave in written but nothinghappened.”• According to the section 21 of WLP Act 1972, the collector has to publishnotice in the local language and serve to the each family. Instead ofpublishing it in Oriya language, they served the Form No. 8 in English.The villagers stated that we put forth the issue before the collector priorto the hearing meeting but nothing happened and instead of giving thenotice to the families he issued notice in the name of the villageheadman.• There is no detailed procedure laid down either in the provisions ofWLP Act, 1972 or in ‘The Wildlife (Protection) (Orissa) Rules, 1974’ inregards to the settlement of rights. As it empowers the collector todecide so the collector of Angul district decided to hold hearingmeetings at four places taking into 8 villages per hearing. Is it possibleto hear all families’ claims within 3 to 4 hours? It seems the wholeprocedure was carried out to legitimize the wrong processes carried outearlier for settlement of rights in the name of public hearing.• District collector did not talk about the customary rights or naturalrights i.e. right to collect, process & sell of NTFPs, even in the Form No.8, nothing was mentioned in this regard. The form 8 only talks about93