Imphal, March 16: Even if thee Joint Forest Management (JFM) has been put into practised in Manipur with the main objective of protecting the forest with the joint efforts of the people and the Government, the concept of JFM is still not clear, thus causing confusion and misgiving among the people living in the forest areas of the State.

Along with expressing their dissatisfaction and apprehension, representatives of various NGOs coming from different hill districts of Manipur who participated in a consultative workshop on Joint Forest Management held today claimed that the people living in the forest areas of the State are being cheated with a hidden agenda of the Government under the clout of JFM.

The consultative workshop was organised by United NGOs Mission, Manipur at the conference hall of Youth Hostel, Khuman Lampak.

Participating in the workshop, convenor of United NGOs Mission, Senapati District Peter ZM observed that protection of forest is the bounden duty of the Government as well as of the people and there are many people amidst us who are depending on forest for their livelihood.

However, the concept of Joint Forest Management being implemented by the Government seems to overlook this fact.

Even though it has been mooted that Joint Forest Management Committees have to be set up in every village for protection of the forest, restriction imposed on felling down and collection of woods would deny the livelihood of the people living in the forest area, Peter noted.

Moreover, even if it has been laid down that representatives of NGOs, village chiefs and head of families in each household in the village of every district have to be included in the Joint Forest Management Committee, the same has not been followed.

The Government has not taken them into confidence in this regard, Peter lamented.

Jayenti Keishing of United NGOs Mission Ukhrul District asserted that the Joint Forest Management is a beautiful concept only on the paper and there is lot of confusion among the people over its implementation at the grassroots level.

Under the guise of implementing the Joint Forest Management, forest resources in the hill districts have been converted as the money minting machine for a handful of people, he alleged, adding that there has been no restriction lifting of a large quantity of woods from the forest area by the officials of the Forest Department although the common people are not allowed to venture inside.

Even for collecting dry woods from the forest area where they have grew up, people in the hill areas have to seek the permission of the Forest Department and taxes are being imposed unreasonably, Jayenti Keishing complained.

During the workshop, Divisional Forest Officer RK Mahendra Pratap spoke on the topic of 'Basic concept of Joint Forest Management - Approach and strategies in the context of Manipur' as resource person.

Pratap recounted that a resolution of adopted on June 8, 2000 for implementation of Joint Forest Management in Manipur.

However, it was implemented only in 2003 and so far 937 villages in the State have been covered under JFM.

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