![\"\"](\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/0.79941600_1563890024_baiga-300x122.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic\u00a0has had a drastic impact on forest communities, causing losses of livelihoods and shelter, food insecurity, physical hardships, health-concerns and economic suffering.<\/p>\n
But it is heartening to witness hundreds of stories of empowered communities under the India\u2019s Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, also known as Forest Rights Act (FRA) coping with the crisis with remarkable resilience.<\/p>\n
Understanding the drastic impact of the pandemic on forest communities and their spirited efforts to tackle it is vital in these\u00a0times of chaos, climate concerns and socio-economic distress.<\/p>\n
Glaring loopholes<\/strong><\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many lacunae in the implementation of welfare schemes and services. Following the announcement of the first phase of lockdown, there was an exodus of nearly 40 million internal migrants from the cities to rural areas.<\/p>\n These included tribals and other forest-dwelling communities\u00a0who got stuck in the cities without any support system, shelter, food or water.<\/p>\n The absence of healthcare facilities in tribal areas, with a prevalence of diseases and health concerns such as malnutrition, malaria, leprosy, etc, severely limited the capacities to deal with any major COVID-19 outbreak, posing a serious threat to the tribal population.<\/p>\n The poor access of tribal and forest dwellers to the public distribution system was\u00a0reported from all states. There were also various reports of starvation from the tribal areas since they remain excluded from most of the socio-economic schemes benefits.<\/p>\n The lockdown measures have badly affected wage employment for\u00a0tribal communities.\u00a0FRA title holders are entitled to an additional 50 days of work under employment guarantee schemes with which they can take up activities such as land development and enhanced productivity of Community Forest Resources (CFR).<\/p>\n It was only after demands from people\u2019s organisations and civil society groups that over 16,000 new names were registered for employment and got work on an average of 25 days across a number of states.<\/p>\n The collection, use and sale of minor forest produce (MFP) by forest dwellers also got severely affected due to the pandemic. An estimated 100 million forest dwellers depend on MFP for food, shelter, medicines and cash income.<\/p>\n The season for collecting non-timber forest produce this year coincided with the lockdown.\u00a0This adversely impacted those whose livelihoods\u00a0depend on MFP.<\/p>\n After demands from people\u2019s organisations, the\u00a0Government of India\u2019s Minimum Support Price (MSP) scheme for procurement of selected MFPs<\/a>\u00a0was further revised and procured a value of Rs 152 crore MSP during the pandemic.<\/p>\n