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Srinagar: A group of tribal herders in the Kulgam district have turned to the law to challenge one of the most controversial policies adopted by the Union government in Jammu and Kashmir following the reading down of Article 370 in 2019.

Invoking the Forest Rights Act (FRA), a group of pastoralists from Kulgam’s Halan area have staked claim to some 60 square kilometres of protected forest that the Union territory (UT) administration allegedly ‘seized’ from them in 2020.

The development assumes significance against the backdrop of the UT administration’s push to remove alleged encroachments from forest land that has served as the home of local tribal communities for centuries.

These ‘anti-encroachment drives’ have escalated sharply since the reading down of Article 370, with opposition parties alleging that what the government calls a crackdown on illegal occupation is in fact a systematic campaign to deprive the people of J&K of their land and livelihoods.

Zahid Pervez Chaudhary, a Gujjar activist, said that a gram sabha was held at a government school in Pachkhul Jaba, Halan, on May 2 and attended by dozens of Gujjar and Bakarwal people along with other tribal leaders and activists.

Chaudhary told The Wire that a resolution making a collective claim on the forest under FRA provisions was drafted by the Forest Rights Committee (FRC) during the meeting, which was later approved by the gram sabha.

The FRC processes claims made under the FRA, following which a gram sabha verifies them and recommends the case to the sub-divisional committee, and finally to the divisional-level committee. “Most claims are rejected at the gram sabha level because they are found to be false,” a forest department official said.

Ishaq Khokhar, a tribal activist and FRC secretary, said the issue dates........

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