Bhubaneswar: Odisha has achieved another milestone in empowering Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) with Saora tribals of Gajapati district getting habitat rights over their ancestral lands.
The Saoras, a PVTG, have long been the custodians of their ancestral lands, practicing sustainable living and maintaining a unique cultural heritage. Now, they have become the fifth tribal group in Odisha to get the rights to protect and preserve natural entities, sacred sites and places of religious and spiritual importance located within their habitat.
Official sources said the District Level Committee (DLC) in Gajapati under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) recently approved habitat rights for the Saora community covering 128 villages in Mohana and R Udayagiri blocks. They will also be responsible for protection and preservation of the natural forest within the habitat rights area.
With this, Gajapati became the fifth district in the state to recognise the habitat rights of PVTGs, reflecting the district administration’s commitment to empower tribal communities and protecting their traditional habitats, they said.
According to section 2(h) of the FRA, habitat includes the area comprising the customary habitat and such other habitats in reserved and protected forests of primitive tribal groups, pre-agricultural communities and other forest-dwelling scheduled tribes.
With their habitat rights settled, they will face no hindrance in performing all customary religious or cultural ceremonies in their areas.
The ST and SC Development department had earlier facilitated habitat rights for Paudi Bhuyans in Deogarh district, Juangs in Keonjhar and Jajpur districts and Chuktia Bhunjia in Nuapada district. Habitat rights are given to PVTGs under section 3(1) (e) of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
Apart from Odisha, Madhya Pradesh has given habitat rights to Bharia PVTG and Chhattisgarh to Kamar and Baiga PVTGs. 128 villages in the Gajapati district are inhabited by Saora tribe.
