By Arun Srivastava
Tribal lands have always been up for grabs. On March 4 the tribals observed Bharat Bandh in protest against their evictions from their own land and accused the state governments of helping the big business in their attempt to grab their lands.
The ground to evict them was being prepared for quite some year. The most potent design which formed the basis for Supreme Court ordering their eviction was the allegation of tribals destroying the forest and killing the animals. A closer look at the background of the champions for eviction will reveal that they are the cohorts of the big business or corporate houses. It is an irony that a sustained effort was being made by vested interests to malign the tribals and blame them for destroying the forests.
Wildlife groups had petitioned the court saying India’s limited forests were being encroached upon, and endangered wildlife was being further threatened by illegal squatters on forest land. They believe allowing people to live in scattered parts of forest land is also leading to the break-up of large forests and fragmentation of the habitat. They say the forest law provides for the resettlement of people living in national parks and sanctuaries, but none of this has happened.
The fact of the matter is this is being propagated with ulterior motives of grabbing their lands. It is also being disseminated that they are anti-Hindu. Basically this has been the reason that neither the RSS nor the BJP is keen to stand by them.
An insight into the procedure adopted to verify their claims on the lands has been tapered. The procedure adopted while rejecting the claims made by the Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribes (FDSTs) and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) was constricted and wrong. Instead of banning the vested interests from acquiring tribal land, it has been on the contrary planning to evict the adivasis, the real owners.
Any move in this direction should have been holistic and looked at the matter in the larger interest of tribals, farmers and forest dwelling communities. It is surprising that the state governments did not take proactive stance. It is worth mentioning that the protection of forest dwelling tribes is consistent with the protection of forests. It is shocking that some states had not followed due procedure while considering the claims. The states have to be judicious in their approach as most of the tribals simply have customary rights.
The Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribes (FDSTs) and Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTDFs) are extremely poor and illiterate people and not well informed of their rights and procedure under the (2006) Act. They live in remote and inaccessible areas of the forest. It is difficult for them to substantiate their claims before the competent authorities.
It is unfortunate that the claims of FDSTs and OTFDs were rejected in a summary manner, and due opportunity was not provided to the claimants. In some cases eviction orders are issued even before the appeals under the Act are exhausted.
It is still uncertain if the data furnished by the states accurately indicates whether the rejection orders were passed after observance of due process of law and natural justice and whether appeal mechanisms had been exhausted.
On February 13, the Supreme Court directed the eviction of families whose claims had been rejected under the Forest Rights Act, an order impacting over 10 lakh tribals and other forest dwellers across the country. It was after protest by the tribals that the apex court put on hold its order directing states to complete the eviction of tribals and forest dwellers whose claims over forest land were rejected under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. The states have time to file their affidavits till July 10, when the court will examine the matter.
Tribals are visibly angry at the government babus, bureaucrats and leaders for rendering the landless and homeless. The nexus of these people have been busy usurping their lands. Sad enough despite affirmative action, most of them continue to eke out a miserable existence in the heavily forested, mineral-rich states. A 2006 law gives tribals and other dwellers living on forest land for three generations before December 2005 the legal right to live and work on the land.
Supreme Court has ordered the eviction of over 1.1 million tribal and other traditional forest dwellers, after it recently rejected their ancient ownership claims on jungle land. The top court has acted on information provided by 17 states. This clearly portrays the anti-tribal approach and character of the states most of which are ruled by the BJP. The states have asked for 13 different kinds of evidence – of every family living on forest land. This obviously exposes the conspiracy the rulers in alliance with the vested interests have chalked out. This is nothing but legally sanctioned eviction of tribals in independent India.
Advocacy group Campaign for Survival and Dignity alleges that “huge numbers of claims have been wrongly rejected and that forest officials, in particular, have a track record of illegally preventing people’s rights from being recognised”. The court order would become a pretext for forest officials to “attack” people who live in the forests.
Such fears are not unfounded. An earlier eviction drive – between 2002 and 2004 – to rid the forests of encroachers resulted in some 300,000 forest dwellers being forced out from lands. Tribals and other forest dwellers are labelled as encroachers simply because their ownership rights have not been recorded and settled by officials as stipulated by forest laws.
In a recent affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) also recognized the historical injustice done to tribal and forest-dwelling communities whose rights were not verified or recorded during consolidation of the forests. This historical injustice had been highlighted earlier by Dr. B.D. Sharma in the Twenty-Ninth Report of the Commissioner SC&ST, submitted in May 1990. At one stage apprehensions were being expressed that the forest encroachments by powerful lobbies may be “regularized” by the government.
Experts estimate that the February 20 order could result in some 8 million tribal people, including women and children, leaving forest areas spread across 17 Indian states which their ancestors had inhabited for centuries. Little doubt the judgement is a death sentence for millions of tribals. The eviction is nothing but a kind of land theft by the states.
While the petitioners asserted that tribals were encroaching on diminishing forest spread across 500 wildlife sanctuaries and 90 national parks the fact remains that the big business and vested interests have been denuding the forests and poaching the animals.
Realising the political cost of tribal eviction, the BJP has made a U turn and asked its state chief ministers to swing into action and file review petitions. The Supreme Court order came a year after it first asked states in March 2018 to provide a status report on evictions and what action had been taken in case of rejected claims. (IPA Service)