Tribals Targeted By BJP Govt

K Varadha Rajan

THE BJP-led government at the centre has issued an order to drive away 10 million strong tribal population from the forest lands they have been cultivating over the decades.

The union ministry of environments and forestry (MOEF) issued a circular in May 2002, in which the state governments were ordered to remove all encroachments before September 2002. The circular sees all the tribals in any type of forest land as encroachers. It ignores the decades-long symbiotic relationship between the tribal people and forests.

The BJP government’s circular on eviction of tribals from forests is a clear reversal of all the earlier guidelines from the central government  in this respect. The Forest Conservation Act 1980; the forest policy declared in 1988 and guidelines of the SC and ST commission in 1990 are some of the important documents dealing with the protection of the forests and relation of  tribals with the forests.  

Ignoring all the suggestions, recommendations and policy declared in the above documents, the BJP government has issued orders for forcible eviction of tribal people and the eviction process has already started in a big way in states like Assam, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and elsewhere.

While passing the Forest Conservation Act of 1980, the central government made a number of promises to the tribal people. No eviction of tribals from their occupied lands, rehabilitation measures for tribals in case of government diverting  the lands for  other purposes etc. were some of the promises made. The forest policy of 1988 also laid special emphasis on the decades long relationship between the tribals and forests and stated measures to be taken to protect the forest and tribals.

The main contribution of the SC-ST commission which gave its recommendations in 1990 was that it drew up a clear framework for dealing with encroachments made before and after the passage of Forest Conservation Act of 1980.  The recommendation distinguished the claims of the tribal people from that of other encroachers. It is a known fact  that the encroachment by big farmers  and non-tribal rich started mostly after 1980.

The SC-ST commission gave the following pragmatic recommendation to protect the forest and the tribal people:

• All encroachments prior to 1980 (i.e. prior to the enactment of Forest Act)   should be settled. In the name of protecting the forests, the poor tribals who have been cultivating lands for decades should not be evicted.

• The encroachments made after 1980 should be carefully examined.

• In case there is a genuine need of evicting the tribals, a pre-condition must be that the states should come up with schemes to provide alternative means of livelihood to such tribals.

• In settling the disputes, claims of the tribal people should not be decided on the basis of the record of forest department or the record of other government departments. Instead involving village communities is the best method in settling disputes. 

 Based on the guidelines of the SC-ST commission, six circulars were issued by the central government in September 1990 for regularisation in respect of leases held by the tribal people before October 25, 1980. But these guidelines were not implemented by any state governments for the last 20 years except the Left-led governments of West Bengal and Tripura. Not only that, many of these state governments turned a blind eye to the nefarious activities of the timber lobby and helped in the destruction of forests.

Now suddenly these people have woken up to the need of protecting the forests but in effect are only ruining the life of the 10 million strong poor tribal people. Only in West Bengal and Tripura these recommendations of the SC-ST Commission were implemented which resulted in the protection of the rights of lakhs of tribals and also helped in the conservation of forest. These governments have also pioneered the concept of participatory management of forest in the country. The concept of participatory forest management has been a major force of socio-economic developments of these states.

It is worth mentioning that Forest Protection Councils of West Bengal were awarded the Paul Getty Award in 1994, in recognition of their outstanding performance.

In response to the coercive measures adopted by central government and various state governments, the AIKS has taken up the task of fighting for the cause of  tribal people in many states including Assam, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka. It is also planning to conduct a sustained all India struggle to protect the millions of tribal people from evictions.

Given the ‘evict all’ approach adopted by the central and many state governments, only the united fight of the tribals will force these governments to roll back such anti-people policies in the coming days.