Panda Committee
The newly constituted Hrusikesh Panda committee met for the first time and decided to visit 4 states and UT (J&K).
Hrusikesh Panda Committee
The Panda committee was constituted by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to look into the forest rights of pastoral communities. It is headed by former secretary of the ministry, Hrusikesh Panda. It has 2 sub-committees: one looks into the recognition and vesting of habitat rights of the particularly vulnerable tribal groups while the other looks into the seasonal resource access to the nomadic and pastoral groups.
Saxena Committee
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs had constituted 2 committees on February 21st. These were the Panda committee and the Saxena committee. The Saxena committee is headed by former Planning Commission and National Advisory Council member, N C Saxena. This committee was tasked with framing a model guideline for the conservation, sustainable use and management of community forest resources under the Forest Rights Act.
Forest Rights Act
The Forest Rights Act was passed in 2006 to protect the rights of people, especially scheduled tribes, to the forest resources. It vests such rights in ‘forest dwelling scheduled tribes’ and ‘other traditional forest dwellers’ who have been resident in the forested regions for several generations. The 4 types of rights conferred by the act are: title rights, forest management rights, forest use rights and the relief and development rights.
