 The Orissa tribal has always lived in an intimate relationship with the forest. Thus the Orissa tribal himself as the lord of the forest. Now he has been turned into a subject and has been are place under the forest Department of his state.
Orissa Tribal Villages are no longer an essential part of the forest, but are there merely on sufferance. The traditional right of the tribal are no longer recognized as ‘right.’ These had become right and privileges’ in 1894, but in 1952 they become rights-concessions, and as per 1988 NFP they have become mere concessions, such as:
1) Right to take water for agricultural purposes.
2) Digging of wells or canals for agricultural purposes.
3) free grazing in open forests (under passes.
4) Removal of stones and earth for domestic or agricultural use.
5) Removal of timber, bamboo, reeds, cane etc. for construction and repair of houses and for manufacturing agricultural implement.
6) Collocation and removal of head loads of fuel wood for domestic use.
7) Collocation of grass for cattle and for covering their huts.
8) Fishing and hunting excluding the protected fauna.
9) Cultivation of forest lands.
However there is no uniformity in the grant of these concessions / privileges by the Orissa states, and moreover, these are confined to certain categories of forests , and something to certain regions of a particular state . Boundary Dispute
In some of the Orissa forest boundaries run very close to the habitations. This has led to conflict between the tribal and the forest department. In Orissa, where this conflict is pronounced, the Tribes Advisory Council has been recommending from time to time that the reserved forest boundary should be at least one furlong away from village boundary .The Orissa forest authorities on the other hand argue that if the boundaries are shifted the tribal will encroach up to the boundary line and that the process of sifting will thus continue indefinitely. In some places (HP), village patwaris had entered forest areas as private land in the village land records and allowed the trees to be cut. Administration takes serious notice of such mal-practices to check denudation of forests.
Conversion of Orissa forest into Revenue Villages
 The Orissa Forest villages had been set up in remote and inaccessible forest area with a view to providing uninterrupted manpower for forestry operation. Due to improved accessibility some of the States have converted forest villages into revenue villages will before 1980. Nonetheless there still exist between 2500 to 3000 forest villages in the country. Besides these there are unauthorized habitations In March , 1984 the Ministry of Agriculture suggested to the state / UT Governments that they were in occupation of land for 20 years. This proposal could not be fully implemented as the duration of occupation ran into controversy.
The National Forest Policy , 1988 states that these should be developed on par with revenue villages. The Ministry of . Environment and Forests has taken a decision that forest villages may be converted into Revenue villages with prior approval of Government . Such villages enclosed in forest areas should preferably be entrusted to the State Forest Departments, such cases may be settled in accordance with the forest (Conservation) Act , 1980. But the Notification No. 13. 1/90 NEP (18-9-90) of the Ministry of Environment and forest is silent about the nature of development activities to be carried out in such villages. The question is whether such villages will come under the purview of DRDA or ITDA, Block or Micro Project for the purpose of undertaking development activities or not, has not been spelt.
Shifting Cultivation
 Shifting cultivation, commonly Know as Jhum or Podu, is practiced by the primitive tribes who inhabit the hills. Shifting cultivation consists of cleaning the hill slopes, burning casting the seeds in the ash-covered soil with the advent of monsoon . In Orissa a proficient agricultural tribel like the Lanjia Saora build superb terraces on hill slopes for harvesting multiple crops. This is because oilseeds, pulses, millets and leguminous crops grow better on hill cleanings than elsewhere for at least two consecutive years. If they stop shifting cultivation practice they will be deprived of these crops and will be reduced to a miserable condition.
Most of the wastelands in tribal areas are in the hands of non-tribals. As such, there are no suitable areable land for the primitive tribal groups to grow crops. Laws have been anacted to prevent transfer of lands of tribals to non-tribals, but this is no panacea. Tribals are easy preys to various temptations of unscrupulous non-tribals and being victims of momentary temptations they surreptitiously mortgage their land by oral agreement. The non-tribals enjoy undisputed possession for a considerable period of time and ultimately they establish ownership by the rule of adverse possession or by benami transaction or by legal trickery.
At the moment shifting cultivation is an essential practice and is unavoidable as it is a way of life for several tribes of North-Eastern, South-Eastern, Central and Southern regions. But the 1988 National Forest Policy categorically states that shifting cultivation is affecting the environment and productivity of land adversely. Alternative avenues of income, suitably harmonized with the right land use practices, should be devised to discourage shifting cultivation. Efforts should be made to contain such cultivation in affecting the environment and productivity of land adversely. Alternative avenues of income, suitably harmonized with the right land used practices, should be devised to discourage shifting cultivation. Efforts should be made through social forestry and energy plantation (Paragraph 4.7 of NEP.1988). Shifting cultivation cannot be practiced in the same patch of hill slope year after year. In order to make such land cultivable terraces will have to be constructed alongwith solid countour bunding. Thus, terracing of shifting cultivation land is essential.
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