Rann agariyas want user rights

Times of India: Ahmedabad: Wednesday, 15 February 2023.
A delegation of the Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch met state forests and environment minister Mulu Bera on Tuesday, seeking community user rights for salt pan workers (agariyas) for eight months of the year.
Harinesh Pandya, trustee of Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch, said that while salt pan workers have no conflict with the Wild Ass Sanctuary, their co-existence should be strengthened by the government. “We told the minister that forest department can have ownership of the land, but the government ought to formalize a system where agariyas can be granted rights to use the land for eight months, as their existence depends on it,” he said.
He added that the government has satellite images of the area and locations where salt pan workers operate can easily be identified. “In this manner, unscrupulous elements who are operating there for commercial gains willalso be controlled and there will be no conflict of agariyas with the forest department,” Pandya said. The areas where saltpan workers operate fall within the limits of the Wild Ass Sanctuary.
The representation added that efforts need to be made towards the education of children of agariyas, so that they can explore other opportunities in the long term. Around 8,000 families of agariyas settle temporarily in LRK of Kutch for eight months to work in salt pans.