Current Affairs: Passage of the Day - 27 September 2024 | Current Affairs & General Knowledge - CLAT PDF Download

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Rama Mankirdia, a resident of Khunta block’s Mahilabasa village in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district is delighted upon receiving habitat rights of the local forested area.
The habitat rights were formally provided to Mankidia on September 22 under the legal sanction of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, a landmark legislation popularly known as the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Historically, Mankidia’s ancestors have been dependent on the forest for their livelihood and ritualistic practices but it is now that his tribal community has a legal claim over the forests around his village. 
Mankidia, along with other members of his community, was felicitated at a ceremony in Barapada which was presided by Krushna Chandra Mohapatra, Odisha’s urban development minister and Ganesh Ram Singkhuntia, minister of forest, environment and climate change.
Prior to the legal entitlement, despite Mankidia belonging to the namesake tribe which is classified as a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG), his community was officially prevented from trespassing the forest land or using forest produce. 
He, along with his community members in Mayurbhanj district, has got the habitat rights from the ministers in a function held at Baripada.
“Since they have got the habitat rights, they will not face any obstacle in performing their traditional and cultural activities in the landscape,” Y Giri Rao, executive director of Vasundhara, an organisation working on FRA implementation in the state, told Down To Earth (DTE). 
“Habitat includes the area comprising the customary habitat and such other habitats in reserved forests and protected forests of primitive tribal groups and pre-agricultural communities and other forest dwellings Scheduled Tribes,” the Section 2(h) of the FRA mentions in its definition of a habitat. 
Mankidia is the second PVTG to get the habitat rights in the state, while the district level committees (DLCs) have approved for other four communities.
FRA implementation in Odisha
Paudi Bhuyan of Deogarh district was the first PVTG to receive habitat rights title in Odisha on March 7, 2024. Habitat rights of Paudi Bhuyan have been recognised over 32 villages under Barkote block.  
The DLCs have given approval to the habitat rights of the Juang in Keonjhar and Jajpur districts, Saora in Gajapati district, Chuktia Bhunjia of Nuapada and Hill Khadia of Mayurbhanj.  
With these, Odisha became the leading state in the country to give approval to the habitat rights of six PVTGs — the maximum in the country, Singkhuntia, the state’s forest minister stated at the ceremony. 
So far, Paudi Bhuyans, Juangs, Chuktia Bhunjia, Saora and Dongria Kondh were the five PVTGs that have been given approval for getting habitat rights under FRA.
The habitat rights claims of some other PVTGs are in different stages of approval at the DLC level, sources informed DTE.
While Chhattisgarh has provided habitat rights to two tribal communities (Kamar and Baiga), Madhya Pradesh (Baiga) and Maharashtra (Maria Gond) provided these rights to one community each.
Odisha is home to a maximum of 13 PVTGs — the highest among all states and Union Territories. The PVTGs inhabit 1,683 villages in 14 districts. There are as many as 1,79,742 households with a total population of 7,73, 092, according to a document titled Mapping of potential habitat rights of PVTGs under FRA in Odisha which has been prepared by the Bhubaneswar-based Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI).
Rao, the representative from Vasundhara, hailed the FRA as a landmark legislation which vests a number of rights over forestlands to forest-dependent communities, including individual rights over forest lands, community rights, the rights to protect and manage the Community Forest Resources (CFR) within the customary boundaries of the village.
“The most significant and critical rights mentioned under this Act are the rights over community tenures of habitat and habitation for PVTGs and pre-agricultural communities under section- 3.1 (e) of the Act,” he said.
“The Act creates a new paradigm of governance that strengthens and promotes the indigenous knowledge and traditional systems of community forest and biodiversity conservation while securing the rights of tribal and other forest-dwelling communities,” Rao added. 
Mankidias at a glance
The Mankidia community is an Austro-Asiatic community that ekes out a living mainly from the forests.
“The Mankidia constitute a semi-nomadic section of the Birhor tribe. They are primarily a food gathering and hunting community. For their traditional skill  of rope making, trapping and eating monkeys, their neighbours call them  ‘Mankidi’ or ‘Mankidia’,” the SCSTRTI mentioned in its official notes on the community on its website
The notes further mention that when monkeys create havoc in rural areas and destroy crops, fruits and vegetables, the villagers employ the Mankidia to catch them. 
“They are one of the most little-known forest dwelling and wandering communities of the state as well as the country. They wander inside forests in small bands and stay at different tandas — the temporary makeshift settlements comprising of temporary dome-shaped leaf huts known as Kumbhas. They speak a form of Munda language and some of them are also conversant in Odia,” it added.
[Excerpt from Down To Earth "Mankidia Community Granted Habitat Rights in Odisha Forests" Dated 27/09/24]
Q1: What recognition has been granted to the Mankidia community in Odisha?
(a) Economic support
(b) Habitat rights
(c) Land ownership
(d) Educational scholarships

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Q2: Under which act were habitat rights granted to the Mankidia community?
(a) Wildlife Protection Act
(b) Forest Rights Act, 2006
(c) Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act
(d) Panchayati Raj Act

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Q3: What is the traditional skill that the Mankidia community is well-known for?
(a) Weaving
(b) Pottery
(c) Rope-making
(d) Wood carving

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Q4: How does the Mankidia community primarily sustain their livelihood?
(a) Agriculture
(b) Urban jobs
(c) Forest resources
(d) Fishing

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Q5: What does Section 2(h) of the Forest Rights Act define?
(a) The rights of non-tribal communities
(b) Habitat rights for tribal communities
(c) Conservation areas for wildlife
(d) Land acquisition procedures

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