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Tripura Governor N. Indrasena Reddy, while addressing the inaugural programme of "Janjatiya Garima Utsav 2026 - Birsa Lives in New Bharat Week", said the government remains committed to ensuring the rights and dignity of tribal communities through scientific planning, inclusive development and maximum use of technology.
During the occasion, the Governor launched the Northeast's first Digital Forest Rights Act (FRA) Atlas, developed with support from the Tripura Space Application Centre, and also inaugurated the Tribal Development Atlas and an FRA Atlas booklet published by the Tribal Welfare Department. Calling the initiative more than a commemorative event, the Governor said the ideals of Birsa Munda relating to tribal rights, forests and identity remain relevant in the 21st century. He stated that Tripura has emerged as a significant example in implementing the Forest Rights Act, with a substantial number of individual forest rights recognised. Tribal Welfare Minister Bikash Debbarma said the department has been continuously working for the welfare and social development of tribal communities, particularly in education and skill development in remote tribal areas. Tribal Welfare Department Secretary Dr K Shashi Kumar, Governor's Secretary U K Chakma, department director Subhashish Das and others were present during the programme. The move aligns with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs' national push for FRA digitisation. To develop an integrated, end-to-end digital platform for effective implementation and monitoring of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, the Ministry has been actively engaging with innovation-driven initiatives to advance digitisation, geospatial integration and decision-support systems for FRA governance. According to the Ministry, as part of this, it placed a problem statement in Smart India Hackathon 2025 for an AI-powered FRA Atlas and WebGIS-based Decision Support System to monitor Individual Forest Rights, Community Rights and Community Forest Resource rights. Following post-Hackathon field engagement in Nashik, Maharashtra, in January 2026, student teams from Pune, Kurnool and Indore conducted field visits to FRA-implemented villages to collect ground-level data. The inputs are being used to refine the national FRA Digital Platform, with final design work held at the National Tribal Research Institute, New Delhi, under the Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met representatives of the Janjati Suraksha Manch in New Delhi and held discussions on issues related to the development and empowerment of tribal communities. In a post on X, the Prime Minister said he had the opportunity to meet the Forum's representatives and commended their dedication to the tribal community. "Today, I had the opportunity to meet with representatives of the Tribal Security Forum in New Delhi. Their dedication to the tribal community is truly commendable. During this meeting, we engaged in meaningful discussions on various topics related to the development of tribal communities and their empowerment," PM Modi said. (ANI)
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