India, Oct. 5 -- Families from Hari village in Poonch's Surankote came to a gathering of forest-rights advocates carrying a grievance that had followed them for years.

Their homes had been damaged during a Forest Department action, they told the audience, and they sought justice and rehabilitation under the Forest Rights Act, a law they said had failed to protect them.

Their accounts gave a human face to a two-day national workshop on the Forest Rights Act of 2006, held in Poonch by the J&K Climate Action Group and the National Alliance on Community Forest Resources & Minor Forest Produce.

The meeting brought together rights advocates, lawyers, environmentalists, civil society groups and forest-dependent communities from Jammu and Ka...