Forest Rights Act - Injustice against Non-tribals

In Vidarbha, especially in the forest laden districts of Chandrapur and Gadchiroli, this distinction between tribals and non-tribals is quite fallacious. With more than 50% of the land in Chandrapur and more than 75% of the land in Gadchiroli under the control of the forest department, it is obvious that poor people dependent on forest land for cultivation and other usage belong to both tribal as well as non-tribal communities.

While the present Act will be a boon to the tribal communities whose most vital interests like cultivation and access to minor forest produce shall be protected, the non-tribal community shall remain in a state of fear and uncertainty in the days to come. What the Act has given to the non-tribals with one hand it has taken away from the other.

The very definition of non-tribal i.e. traditional forest dwellers shall deprive a huge number of non-tribals from the benefits that should rightfully be theirs.
Section 2 (o) defines “other traditional forest dweller” as ‘any member or community who has for at least three generations prior to the 13th day of December, 2005 primarily resided in and who depend on the forest or forest land for bona fide livelihood needs.

Explanation – For the purpose of this clause, “generation” means a period comprising of twenty-five years.

This definition along with the explanation is the most mischievous piece of legislation by driving a wedge between tribals and nontribal communities living side by side for generations.

As a direct outcome of this provision extremely marginalized groups like dalits, nomadic tribes, denotified tribes, OBCs and other sections of rural poor shall suffer eviction and other atrocities by the forest department. How will these people bring evidence of three generations of twenty years each, in effect seventy five years i.e. of 1930 or before? Are they expected to bring birth certificates of their grandparents and great grandparents? How can our lawmakers forget that they are asking poor forest dwellers for evidence from British times? This is the most cruel and hateful attitude that our rulers have shown towards forest dwelling communities.

Some of the specific examples of groups that are going to suffer in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli include: -
1. Rehabilitated East Bengali refugees – Between 1964 and 1980 more than 5000 families from the erstwhile East Bengal were rehabilitated in the Dandakaranya region comprising of forest areas in Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Bhandara districts. At present there are a total of 55 villages of these resettled refugees. Obviously, they would be unable to present any document of 1930 although they have documents from the Department of Rehabilitation of the Central government.

2. Dalits, minorities, OBCs and nomadic tribes – Kurmars or Dhangars are a nomadic tribe whose livelihood used to be mainly dependent on rearing sheep and goats. These people are largely landless have cultivation on forestland. There are other nomadic tribes like Pardhis who are still being rehabilitated by the government and have no other source than forest land. Apart from this minorities, Dalits, and OBCs are bound to suffer injustice under this Act.

3. Resettled villages – a number of non-tribals were settled in different villages after the formation of the district in 1982. For example families from village Manjewada of Armori taluka were resettled in Jogishankra and Pathargota in the late 1960s. Similarly, non-tribals were allotted land and resettled from various areas in villages like Rajgopalpur, Reshmipur, Priyadarshini, and Tumri in Chamorshi Taluka of Gadchiroli district.

4. Migrants – Gadchiroli district is contiguous with Andhra Pradesh and there are many Andhraites who left that state and are settled in this district since 1960s or 70s. Similarly, during the famine in Marathwada, people from Nanded and Osmanabad districts migrated to Chandrapur districts.

5. Cultivators previously declared eligible - The government of Maharashtra had passed a GR in October 2002 under which thousands of non-tribals had been considered eligible for regularisation. Now under the present Act they are facing the threat of being declared ineligible.