Discourse on land Rights and Forest Land' begins
Source: Chronicle News Service

Thoubal, March 27 2022: A two-day public consultancy on 'Land Rights and Forest Land in Manipur' has begun from Sunday at the auditorium of IRE Group of Institutions, Wangjing in Thoubal district.

The inaugural session of the public consultancy being organised by EKTA Parishad Manipur was attended by IRE Group of Institutions principal Rajivkumar Narengbam as chief guest, EKTA Parishad national coordinator Ramesh Sharma as president and revenue officer Haobijam Sujit as guest of honour while SDC (Thoubal) M Malemnganba and Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) Manipur director advocate Rakesh Meihoubam were present as resource persons.

In her keynote address, EKTA Parishad Manipur coordinator Mamta Lukram said that 90:10 hill-valley physical composition of land structure is an indication that forest cover is high in Manipur.

The valley is divided into five districts namely Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Kakching and Thoubal.

According to Mamta Lukram, there is report of increasing forest cover of the state to around 263 sq km from 2015 and it was made official in a report in 2017 .

Assam and Manipur are the only states in NE India with record of increased forest cover and the expanding forest cover and the limited revenue land meant for land entitlement are paradoxes for understanding the dynamics.

According to Socio-Economic & Caste Census Report (SECC) 2011, Manipur has a total of 71 per cent landless households, which is the third in NE India while Mizoram has the highest and Meghalaya is in the second spot.

She highlighted that during surveys of households in some isolated pockets of certain districts it came to light that land which were formerly revenue villages or unclassified khas land were being claimed by the settlers to have been categorised as part of forest cover and they feel threat to their existence.

As such, physical surveys before expanding forest cover and sharing of timely information to the people for compatibility are essential.

Moreover, the revenue department needs to take necessary initiative to assist the people towards legalised allotment.

Appropriate alignment of Land laws and Revenue Department would lead towards legal entitlement of land to many who are devoid of this basic right, she said.

Resource persons DFO Thoubal Th Lokendro spoke on the topic 'Forest Land and Human Habitation' while advocate Rakesh Meihoubam deliberated on 'Women and Land Rights'.

Another resource person M Malemnganba spoke on 'Revenue Land and Land Allotment Challenges' .

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