Lagatar24 Desk]
Raipur, August 10: The ‘Kamar’ tribe, a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district, has been granted habitat rights, which would aid in the preservation of their culture and means of livelihood and allow the government to work for their development, officials said on Thursday.
Kamar is the first PVTG in the state to receive such status, according to them.
This move will help the families of the Kamar tribe who reside in 22 settlements in the Magarlod development block of the Dhamtari district.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel presented the certificates for the habitat rights to the leaders of these 22 settlements on Wednesday, World Tribal Day.
The Gariaband, Dhamtari, Mahasamund and Kanker districts are home to the majority of the Kamar tribe’s members. Their population as of the 2011 census was 26,630, the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development Department Commissioner of Chhattisgarh, Shammi Abidi said.
The recognition of habitat rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) would not only help in protection and promotion of customary arrangements, culture, tradition, livelihood means, habitat of the PVTG by officially documenting them, but also enable the government to work for their empowerment and development of their areas through schemes of various departments, officials said.
“This is the first time that habitat rights have been given to a PVTG in the state. With this move, Chhattisgarh has become the second state in the country to have issued such a right to a PVTG after neighbouring Madhya Pradesh,” Abidi said.
The state government has granted the PVTG status to two tribal groups, the Pando and Bhunjia, while the centre has proclaimed five PVTGs in Chhattisgarh, including the Abujmadia, Baiga, Kamar, Birhor and Hill Korva. Community forest rights apply to all Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs), while habitat rights are a unique component of the Forest Rights Act (FRA)-2006 that is intended to recognize the traditional rights of PVTG/Pre-agricultural Communities, she said.
Habitation rights and rights to a PVTG community’s traditional habitat are included in habitat rights, according to the official. According to this, the habitat is defined by four factors: the PVTG’s demographic and geographic composition; socio-cultural parameters and cultural intangibles; economic parameters; and ecological parameters and biodiversity knowledge, including traditional knowledge.
The habitat right is acknowledged over customary lands. The Kamar tribe’s land is divided into sub-habitats called as Pali, each of which has a number of para/tola (settlements), the official said.
‘Mukhdihvar’ is the name of the traditional leader in every para/tola, and ‘Mudadaar’ is the name of the traditional leader in every Pali. They have a unique social structure, including a form of government, and cultural system. such social and cultural systems are recognized by the habitat right, she said.
She stated that efforts will soon be made to grant comparable privileges to other PVTGs in the state as well as the Kamar tribe in other regions of Chhattisgarh.
