THE LANDMARK Forest Rights Law may not have made any headway in 11 states with sizeable tribal and forest dwellers population but Chhattisgarh is on its way to become the first Indian state to give them land rights from this month, a government report states.

The Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, implemented from January 1, this year, gives right over land and forest produce to trib als and forest dwellers except in wildlife habitats identified by the Environment and Forest ministry.

In an activity chart submitted to the Central government, Chhattisgarh government has informed that finalisation of claims at the district level committees and distribution of forest right awards would start from May 1.

Incidentally, the state government wants to distribute most of the awards before assembly elections later this year.

The report prepared to gauge the impact of PM Manmohan Singh's appeal to all state chief ministers in January to implement "landmark legislation" on the forest rights also lauds Orissa, another state with sizeable tribal population, for initiating quick action to implement the law. The state government has told the Centre that sub-divisional and state level committees have been constituted and process to identify forest rights has been initi ated, the report said. Others states which have started working on implementation of the law are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Assam.

The report also makes it clear that the euphoria over implementation of the law has not enthused all states. States like Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Uttranchal and  Uttar Pradesh has not initiated any action for implementation of the law as on May 1.

Andaman and Nicobar islands with huge tribal population living in forest has also not informed the Central government about its in tentions to implement the law earnestly .

Some other states have also given peculiar reasons to why law cannot be implemented. Haryana, for instance, says that there are no scheduled tribes or forest dwellers living in forests in the state. Manipur government has citied state assembly elections as a reason for delay in implementation. Nagaland has said that the law is not applicable to the state because of the peculiar land holding system of Naga people.

"The village system of Naga people is peculiar where community is owner of the land," the Nagaland government has informed the Central government.

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