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Showing contexts for: forest defined in Page No.# 1/15 vs The State Of Assam And 3 Ors on 19 January, 2022Matching Fragments
(c) defines Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribal, and Section 2 (o) defines "Other Traditional Forest Dweller". "Forest Land" is defined in Section 2
(d) and "Forest Rights" is defined in Section 2 (e). The learned counsel therefore submits after the enactment of the said Act of 2006, Forest Rights can be vested and recognized only upon the persons coming within the ambit of Section 2 (c) and 2 (o) and the petitioners admittedly do not come within the ambit of both the Sections and as such, the petitioners do not have a right to claim settlement/ allotment in respect to the land in question which admittedly is a Forest Land. He also referred to the Schedule Tribes & Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Rules 2007 (for short the Rules of 2007) and refer to Rule 13, which pertains to the evidence of determination of the Forest Rights. He submits that there is a mechanism as per the Rules of 2007 as to how a person can be vested with the rights in respect to Forest Villages.
18. Apart from the Forest Regulation, it is also relevant to take note of the provisions of the Act of 2006 Section 2 (c) as aforementioned defines the term "Forest Dwelling Schedule Tribal" and Section 2 (o) defines Other Traditional Forest Dwellers". Both the definitions are quoted herein below:
"Section 2(c) - "forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes" means the members or community of the Scheduled Tribes who primarily reside in and who depend on the forests or forest lands for bonafide livelihood needs and includes the Scheduled Tribe pastoralist communities;
Section 2 (o) - "other traditional forest dweller" means any member or community who has for at least three generations prior to the 13th day of December, 2005 primarily resided in and who depend on the forest or forests land for bona fide livelihood Page No.# 11/15 needs."
19. Section 2 (d) defines the 'Forest Land' as any land of any description falling within any forest area and includes any Unclassified Forest, Un-demarcated Forest, Existing or Deemed Forest, Protected Forest, Reserve Forest, Sanctuaries and National Parks. Section 2 (f) defines 'Forest Village' to mean the settlement which have been established inside the forest by way the Forest Department of any State Government for forestry operations or which were converted into forest villages through the forest reservation process and include forest settlement villages, fixed demand holdings, all types of laungya settlements by whatever name called, for such villages and includes land for cultivation and other uses permitted by the Government.
20. Section 2 (e) defines 'Forests Rights' to mean the forest rights referred in Section 3. Section 3 relates to the forest right of Forest Dwelling Schedule Tribes & Other Traditional Forest Dwellers. Amongst the various rights it is relevant to take note of that the Rights of Settlement and Conversion of all forest villages, old habitation un- surveyed villages and other villages in forest whether recorded, notified or not into revenue villages are one amongst many forest rights of the persons defined in Section 2 (c) and 2 (o) of the Act of the 2006.