Excerpts* from:
Tribal Forest Interface - Logic of Survival
Pradip Prabhu

Combat Law, December 01, 2003.

A central principle of the tribal ethos is that no person is permitted to take advantage of the others weakness, whether human or not. This is what has come to be known as a symbiotic relationship between the forests and the forest dwellers

Tribal-forest interface was never one sided. All aspects of their economic, social, religious and cultural life were closely linked to the forest in such a way that it became the very life support system of the tribals. This relationship is called symbiotic because the tribals depended on forests as a child depended on the mother. The logic of survival of both tribals and forests, centers, round access and not ownership; much like the relationship of an infant with her/his mother.

Free access to forest survival resources for tribal communities from time immemorial stimulated the evolution of a legal frame of stewardship (the realm of reciprocal rights and responsibilities), by a community (not individuals), to protect and preserve the survival resource in the interest of the survival of future generations (not commercial exploitation).

This was enshrined in the unwritten 'Constitution' (ethos, culture and spirituality) of the tribal or forest dwelling community with the rule of law that was collectively ratified and participatorily enforced (the law did not presume a distinction between the ruler and ruled). The interface can be summed up as mutual dependence with mutual dignity. The recognition of the individuality and dignity of both the partners in the interface mediated a frame of access and use with conservation.

Such a balance was essential because given the extent of their dependence there always was the danger of over exploitation if social control was not exercised. Taboos and prohibitions, legitimized by giving both a philosophical xii and a religious basis through myths, governed the access and use of forest resources. Thus there emerged tales of Gods and Goddesses who were angered by the cutting of certain tree species and destroyed the village as a whole and the offenders in particular. Animals and birds were also protected by the same set of values and beliefs.

In Kalahandi District the tiger is treated as a brother. If a tiger dies the neighbouring village is expected to bury it with all the elaborate funeral rites observed when one's brother dies. The concept of stewardship among the tribals is probably the last vestige of a system that managed access and sustainability through consensual normative cultural social fencing. This stewardship took on many forms. One was confining exploitation to certain seasons, like the harvesting of nakhdun (a tuberous plant) in Tehri - Garhwal or the use of Bel among the Anpir Konds of Ganjam. Another form of stewardship was restrictions based on certain stages of life. The tribe of phaseparadhis of Maharashtra or the Orissa tribals exercise restraint on killing fawns and pregnant does or black ducks even if snared.

The third manifestation of stewardship was the restrictions on cutting of 'sacred' species. While the banyan, peepal etc are protected throughout India, every tribal community has some species, which it considers essential for its survival. They take measures to protect these species by declaring them sacred.

In Orissa, for example, the tribals accord such a status to Sal, Mahua and in some cases (in Western Orissa) even to the mango tree. The Khond trihals of Kalahandi do not harm the Salap tree because it is believed that when the world was submerged in water and all people died except two children, the progenitors of the adivasi race, who survived on a hill, the salap gave them its juice and saved them from starvation.

The Ankiya Konda of Ganjam district believe that they are descendants of a Kond boy and his wife, the various parts of whose body were made of Bel fruit, Saraiwood, Karela (bitter gourd) , mushrooms, oranges etc. The most critical form of stewardship particularly in the cases of high bio-diversity was the protection of entire ecosystems as sacred groves, called 'devovan' or deorais' or 'sholas', patches of forest, which are left untouched, usually dedicated to a diety or mother-goddess who is supposed to protect and preside over the grove. Such sacred forests are found all over India in the tribal zones.

The Warli tribals celebrated the 'forest as the sustainer of life'; deified it as "hirva" (literally meaning green) and placed it at the center of the pantheon, to be worshipped as the entity that sustains all life, including theirs. At the other end of the spectrum is the modern understanding of forest as 'wilderness' bereft of human presence and activity, to be experienced and enjoyed as an esoteric act of leisure. 

At present there are over 400 groves in Maharashtra and about the same number in Madhya Pradesh, several in Assam and Megalaya and many in Rajasthan, Gujarat, the Nilgiris". The fifth form of stewardship was through the concept was of a sacred space; the saran, where the deity and the spirit of the tribe resided, symbolized the very identity of the tribe; the sasan, an open space in the forest being the resting place of the ancestors and the akhra where young men and women met there for dancing. Dependence with dignity, survival with sustainability, reciprocal rights with responsibility as the core values of stewardship are perhaps the best examples in human history of an equitable relationship between sentient and silent beings.

 

*The original article runs into 14 pages. The portion relevant to Adivasi culture only has been reproduced here.