Volume 6, No. 10, October 2005

- Suman

In the present monsoon session of parliament the government plans to pass the new Forest Bill, entitled The Scheduled Tribes & Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005. Ironically this Bill is being eugolised by the environmen-talists and the revisionist CPI/CPM. In fact the CPM intellectual Jayati Ghosh went so far as to call it "one of the most important and progressive laws that the UPA government proposes to enact" (Frontline July 1 2005). But the reality is something quite different. Let us see the essence of the main proposal in this new Bill.

The proposed law gives only the Scheduled Tribes amongst all the forest dwellers the right to 2.5 hectares of forest land per nuclear family for "self-cultivation for bonafide livelihood and not for exclusive commercial use" provided the family undertakes "the responsibility of protection, conservation and regeneration of forests" and "ensures no one carries out any activity that adversely affects the wildlife, forests and biodiversity of the area". Besides, only those lands being cultivated before 1980 will be taken into consideration. And evidence for the validity of a claim to these rights is to be obtained from "oral testimony, government records, survey maps, satellite imagery, traditional physical structures, gram sabha resolutions and other sources". Finally, the Bill gives the Adivasi only the right to use the land, not to own it, as he has no right to sell this land according to the Bill.

At all levels the gram sahbhas and forest officials are to be involved and they can impose "penalties for destruction of wildlife, forests, or biodiversity (including felling trees for commercial purposes), and in the case of repeated offences, the forest rights of the offender can be derecognized".

This Bill is being brought in at a time that the government is planning a massive eviction of tribals in order to clear the way for the multinational mining companies and their comprador agents that are coming into the country in a big way to rob it of its iron ore, coal, bauxite, uranium, and numerous other natural wealth, including its huge biodiversity. Already the Orissa government has given mining rights for iron ore and steel production to 35 companies, including the giant POSCO and also to large numbers of aluminum, companies.

The draconian nature of the above mentioned Bill is seen in the fact that only land before 1980 is to be considered, for which there is likely to be very little evidence after the passage of two-and-a-half decades. Since then two generations would have come with each new generation seeking some land, all of which will not even be considered. Besides, it is left to the forest officials-sarpanch-bureaucrat nexus to take the decision through the various methods narrated above. It, in fact, is this nexus mafia that have been terrorizing and looting the tribals for decades. Now they are to be entrusted with deciding their fate in the supposed name of the gram sabhas.

Besides this same mafia will have arbitrary powers to deny any tribal family of the right if they are supposedly not taking the responsibility of protection, conservation and regeneration of forests" and "ensuring that no one carries out any activity that adversely affects the wildlife, forests and biodiversity of the area". How and why should this be a condition to till the land that they have done for centuries? Also it pits tribals against tribals using them to forcibly police the forest under the fear of losing their land. So, the tribes must slave for the forest mafia in order to live there. And after all this the tribal family live not as a right owning their own property on which they have lived for centuries, but on the sufferance of the State and the political mafia. Nothing could be more humiliating. Yet Jayati Ghosh says it is "one of the most important and progressive laws that the UPA government proposes to enact". The Bill is nothing but an attempt of the Tribal Ministry in partnership with the Environment and Forest Ministry to re-introduce ‘begar’, a system of slavery the British imposed on forest dwellers.

In fact well before the passage of his Bill the forest department has been on a massive offensive evicting tribals from their traditional lands. The process will only speed up, at least in those areas where there is no naxalite presence.

Already the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has announced a policy of handing over forest land to corporate houses and multinationals. Simultaneously it has gone on a massive and brutal offensive against the tribals (except in those areas under naxalite influence).

Savage methods of eviction were evident of what was reported in three villages Kharkari, Ambakhera and Singhot, of Khandwa district. On April 2, in village of Kharkari armed forest personnel descended on the village in some 10 vehicles, drove the residents away and destroyed homes built over a generation ago. The residents had ration cards, voter identity cards and there were even hand pumps set up by the government. 61 houses were destroyed and everything was looted — millet and coarse grains, forest produce, goats, chickens! Even the local school was raised to the ground. At Ambak-hera, a few days later, the forest officials came armed, and raised the village to the ground. They also destroyed any evidence the people may have had of their residence there. Women and children were not spared. 49 houses were gutted; 41 were destroyed in nearby Singhot. The local police refuse to register any FIR. This is not restricted to Khandwa district, evictions also took place in Indore district. In many other villages villagers are being threatened by eviction.

If one looks back a few years we see that the Supreme Court has played a particularly nefarious role in the whole process. In 1992 the Supreme Court stayed a circular of the Ministry that sought to legalise all possessions up to Dec 1993 in MP. In May 2002 the Supreme Court issued a directive to all State governments to evict "encroachers" from all forests immediately.

A massive eviction drive ensued which targeted forest communities. Lakhs of families were rendered homeless — as many as 40,000 families in Assam alone — and there are recorded cases of excessive violence. There has been mass burnings of forest dwellers’ homes in MP, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Elephants have been used to demolish entire villages in Maharashtra and Assam. Attacks have also gone against the dalit forest dwellers in the Nilgiris of Tamilnadu.

So now armed with this new Bill, which will soon be turned into an Act the ferociousness of the State against the forest dwellers is bound to increase.

It was the British, through the mere passing of an Act, seized the forests and its entire wealth and overnight turned the millions of tribals into trespassers in their own land. The Indian government has continued with these British policies hounding the tribals day-and-night. It was only when the Naxalites entered their lives did the rapacious loot stop. Till today we find that in all areas where the Naxalites still do not have influence the lives of the Adivasis is a nightmare. Thousand and thousands die of starvation in the tribal belts of Melghat, Orissa, and many other places. In the areas of naxalite influence the tribals are, for the first time ever, better off than ever. In these areas the forest truly belongs to them. They not only cultivate forest land, but also preserve the forests.

But in other places as well tribals are beginning to assert themselves. In the Nilgiris the Adivasis have taken to a civil disobedience movement. In April in a small town in Khandwa district, 10,000 Adivasis gathered against the eviction policies of the government. The tribals of the entire country need to rise in revolt, not just to throw out this Bill, but to assert their legitimate rights over the forests they have inhabited for generations.

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