A national seminar held recently at Gauhati recommended inter alia the formation of study teams, both at the State levels and the national, to “go deep in to the loopholes” of the existing laws relating to tribal land and indebtedness, and suggest measures to protect tribal interests. The seminar expressed particular concern at the increasing number of transfer of land belonging to the poor tribal community. This is an aspect on which not much attention has been riveted so far in dealing generally with what is regarded as the problem of alienation of tribal land.
So much emphasis in fact has been laid in recent times on preventing transfer of tribal land to non-tribals that in the whole process the case of deprivation of land of the poor among the tribals by the comparatively richer sections of the tribals themselves have largely been lost-sight of. In this connection, the seminar has made a novel suggestion that the State Government or a cooperative society may purchase the land offered by a distressed tribal on condition that the land would be returned to the original owner on repayment of the value of the land. This option, however, can be allowed only for a reasonable period of time and not indefinitely.