FOREST LAND DISPUTES AND ENCROACHMENT ISSUES

    "A major cause of confrontation between the tribal people and the State has been the difference in the perceptions about the rights of the tribal people over the forests and their use. The touchstone of the validity of any system and its practices is their harmony with the right to life with dignity of the ordinary people. This right is self-evident and does not need the support of any formal announcement or even adoption in a Constitution. This right is the very essence of human civilization."
 
                                                                                    - B. D. Sharma, 1990 SC/ST Commissioner.

Who is the real encroacher? The state or the Adivasi?  What are the major and minor Land disputes as regards forests are concerned? - these are some of the issues that have been examined in this section.
 
 

DALI LAND

“Dali-Land” is that barren and inferior quality land which exists on the hill slopes of Konkan region of Maharashtra. The equation in the Konkan village was that the non-Adivasis would usually own the prime agricultural land around the village and the rest of the land which was of no use to them would be left for the Adivasis to cultivate and ensure their livelihood. This arrangement, forced on the Adivasis, resulted in the Adivasis cultivating foodgrains of inferior quality during the months of the monsoon and working at the farms of the non-Adivasis and later on in the coal mines for atleast eight months in a year.

This situation was legitimised and the Dali-land was transferred to the name of the group of Adivasis who cultivated it by the British in the nineteenth century. However, the state and Union Government did not continue this arrangement after independence. Even under land ceiling Act and other measures of land reforms the Adivasis did not get ownership of the Dali-lands they cultivated.

To know more about the Dali land issue in Maharashtra and the struggle click here.
 
 

ORANGE AREAS

What happens when it is discovered that two departments of the government namely the Forest Department and the Revenue Department have committed grave errors in discharging their duties, especially when the error has led to the denial of rights enshrined in the Constitution to thousands of people? The Orange Area land dispute is a classic example of such a case and has policy and legal implications in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The “Orange Area” is disputed and claimed by both, the Revenue and the Forest Departments. As a result of its ambiguous status, thousands of tribals have lost their homes and lands since 1958. On the whole, the Forest Department has been tardy in completing the de-notification proceedings as per section 34 A of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the Revenue Department has been lazy in updating its records pertaining to the transfer and re-tranfer of the said land.

Click here to read a comprehensive report on the Orange areas prepared by the National Centre for Advocacy Studies.
 
 

Resolution of conflicts concerning forest lands - Adoption of a frame by Government of India

The present situation in our country in the context of this basic right of the people cannot be said to be complimentary. Here are the tribal people, who are eking out a living from the natural resource in their habitat according to their perceptions, abilities and traditions. They are not making any demands from the system for sustenance, support or privileges like those in the modern sector of our economy or those who are conscious about the tremendous benefits which are bestowed automatically by its membership. Their only desire is to be allowed to live in their ancestral homes without interference. They are keen to enter that privileged group, but the state is not prepared to concede. Nay, it does not hesitate in using law and even force against these people on some technical grounds or even otherwise. Their inalienable claim of continued use for survival as a people. This is not only denial, but blatant violation of the basic right to life with dignity of the people, which is enshrined in our Constitution. No formal stand, which the state or the concerned authorities may prefer to take in this regard, can be acceptable for this gross violation of human rights.

To read the full document by B. D. Sharma, 1990 Commissioner for SCs and STs click here. This 1990 report very cogently describes the forest land disputes concerning Adivasis.  [A must read].  See CED. Report E23d.3 for the annexures.

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FOREST ENCROACHMENT - THE FACTS

Rights and Wrongs
Encroachments are a major cause for the loss of forests in India. A variety of people are responsible for this, from land mafia to urban citizens to poor rural families. But many of the tribal and other forest-dwelling communities have been unfairly labelled as "encroachers". The fact is that they occupied or were using these lands before they were declared "forest lands" under the Indian Forest Act, but the traditional occupation and use of these lands by them were ignored. For instance, the revenue land settlements completed during the 1970s in Orissa did not involve the survey of hilly lands, which are predominantly inhabited by tribal communities (owing to the higher surveying costs it entailed); these were declared state-owned revenue "wastelands" or forests. In Andhra Pradesh, lands under shifting cultivation, which were lying fallow at the time of forest classification, were declared reserve forests, without recording the rights of the tribal people.

To read further click here.
 

Who is encroaching on whose land?
In many other states, large areas of erstwhile common lands, including village grazing lands, community forests, natural grasslands and alpine pastures, have been declared state owned forests through blanket notifications. While many of these never were natural ‘forests’ because of which their legal classification neither reflects their functional or ecological status, confusion has been confounded due to declarations of state ownership not having been followed up by clear demarcation on the ground after legally required surveys and settlement of existing rights. Land records in M.P., for example, are in a dismal condition and the land rights of the majority of Orissa’s seven million adivasis living in hilly areas, in all categories of forest and revenue lands, are yet to be settled. The enactment of the Forest Conservation Act in 1980 has greatly complicated the process of settling tribal rights.

To read further click here.
 

The state, the empowered committee and the law: Encroaching with impunity
Official records note that 77,661 acres of land in AP’s ‘reserve forests’ were under cultivation by tribals prior to enactment of the FCA 1980. A 1987 government memo, requiring regularisation of tribal rights over this land, went unheeded for eight years.

And in 1995 a new memo overruled it after the AP- World Bank funded forestry project was initiated. This memo directed that the tribals’ lands be brought under Joint Forest Management (JFM) effectively changing its legal status to state owned ‘forest’ land. The forest department proudly claims it retrieved 37,000 hectares (ha) of ‘forest’ land from ‘encroachments’ in Vishakhapatnam district alone. Field investigations by tribal youth of the AP Adivasi Aikya Vedika reveal that several impoverished podu cultivators were cheated of their cultivated lands by bringing it under JFM plantations; clearly a cynical use of a ‘participatory’ programme.

To read full report click here.
 

Eviction drives and the real encroacher
The way wildlife protection is practised in India leads to a complete polarisation and distrust between wildlifers and communities living in and around forests.

 “If the claims of the tribal people are to be determined on the basis of the record of the forest department or at best, record of other government departments, his claim is as good as lost. It is the fact of possession, of law, its cultivation and actual reclamation, in some cases by his ancestors which is the common knowledge of the village which is the basis of his claim. These facts may or may not have been brought on record. The reasons for this dissonance are many. For example, the official may not have visited the area or may have preferred not to take note of the cultivation, or may not have bothered to bring it on record and such like. They are of no concern of the tribal people. They cannot be expected to know what is here in government record. In these circumstances if the record were to be insisted, the disputes about land can never be expected to be resolved.”

To read the full report click here.
 
 

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Also read: 
“YOUR LAND AND FUTURE”
Survival International Guide on:

1..  How tribes around the world can secure their lands and way of life in the face of persecution.
2.. How to conduct a campaign when faced with the invasion of their lands by oil companies, loggers and colonists, and offers tips on their rights under international law, and how to secure them.

Survival has distilled its 36 years of experience in campaigning on behalf of tribal peoples into a powerful tool for the tribes themselves. We hope this guide will be read and used in remote tribal communities around the world, so that they are in a better position to stand up to the powerful companies and governments that so often view them as just an obstacle to 'progress'.

To access the guide click here.  Once the file is open, magnify it.

Recommended readings:

1.. For Justice.... for Dignity..... for Equality, Ulka Mahajan, 2002, Sarvahara Jan Andolan.                          Copy available with CED.