1 / 64

The Recovery of The Commons the forest and her peoples

The Recovery of The Commons the forest and her peoples. Democratizing Forest Governance. A historical and political perspective. C.R.Bijoy. The Forest in 2005. Overlap. Tribal Areas. Forest covered a large portion of the geographical area of the country in ancient times…….

ron
Télécharger la présentation

The Recovery of The Commons the forest and her peoples

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Recovery of The Commons the forest and her peoples

  2. Democratizing Forest Governance A historical and political perspective C.R.Bijoy

  3. The Forest in 2005

  4. Overlap Tribal Areas

  5. Forest covered a large portion of the geographical area of the country in ancient times……. ….85% by some estimates !

  6. But….. There are 188 tribal districts out of 626 districts in 26 States/UTs …33.57% of the country’s total area. …60.11% (63% in 2003) are forest which is 36.81% of total forest. There are 124 Hill Districts in over 16 States and UTs ….with 38.85% forest. 2005 data And…..76,600 sq kms (twice the size of the State of Kerala) are disputed between the Forest Department and Revenue Department.

  7. The Hill District of the northeast Arunachal Pradesh: Dibang Valley, East Kameng, West Kameng, Lohit, East Siang, Lower Subansiri, Upper Subansiri, Changlong, Papum Pare, Tawang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Tirap. Tripura: North Tripura, South Tripura and West Tripura. Assam: North Cachar Hills, Karbionglong and Naogaon. Manipur: Imphal West, Senapati, Imphal East, Churachandpur, Chandel, Bishnupur, Tamenglong, Ukhrul and Thoubal. Meghalaya: West Garo Hills, Ri Bhoi, East Garo Hills, East Khasi Hills, South Garo Hills, Jaintia Hills and West Khasi Hills. Nagaland: Dimapur, Zunebhoto, Mon, Phek, Kohima, Mokochung, Wokha and Tuensang. Sikkim: East, West, North and South Sikkim. Mizoram: Aizwal, Saiha, Serchip, Champai, Kolasib, Lawngtlai, Mamit andLunglei.

  8. The Hill Districts of Western Ghats Karnataka: Belgaum, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Chikmanglur, Dakshina Kannada and Shimoga. Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Nilgiri. Tamilnadu forms a corridor between the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats. The hill districts mentioned above fall in the ranges of the Eastern and Western Ghats. Kerala: Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Eranakulam, Idukki, Malapuram, Palakkad, Quilon, Kasargode and Thiruvananthapuram Maharshtra: Nashik, Pune, Satara, Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Raigarh and Sindhudurg.

  9. The Hill Districts of the Himalayan Region Uttaranchal: Almora, Uttarkashi, Udhamsing Nagar, Tehri Garhwal, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Rudra, Prayag, Champawat, Pittoragarh, Nainital, Dehradun, Garhwal and Haridwar. Himachal Pradesh: Una, Solan, Kullu, Bilaspur, Chamba, Hamirpur, Kangra, Sirmaur, Shimla, Kinnaur, Mandi, Lahul and Spiti. Jammu and Kashmir: Anantnag, Udhampur, Baramula, Tribal Territory, Chilas, Raisi , giligt, Poonch, Gilgit/Wazart, Muzzafarabad, Jammu, Mirpur, Kathua and Ladakh. West Bengal: Darjeeling

  10. 71% of the ancestral lands of tribals taken over by the State Forest Department. 70% of the livelihood resources are from the forests…..3,500 out of 4,175 working mines (1991-92)…..over 3,000 dams…. Over 2,00,000/ 5,87,274 villages gather from the forests; 170,379 of them supporting a mixed population of 147 million show forest as a land use. The total forest area of these villages is 32,198,305 hectares. Maoists have established in 170 districts which overlap with tribal districts and hill districts There are 2,690 Forest Villages (As on 30.06.2005) 62.9% of Adivasis are landless.

  11. Forest Diversion……. Between 1980-1995 : 4,15,762 ha at 25,985 ha/yr Between 1980-2001 : 8,27,857 ha at 37,629 ha/yr 1996 Godavarman Case Between 1996-April 2006 : 7,50,440 ha at 72,646 ha/yr [2.8 time under Supreme Court] Between 2002-April 2006 : 3,38,345 ha at 75,139 ha/yr [2.08 times under Central Empowered Committee] Total 1,133,123.93 since 1980 More forest area was diverted (51%) for non-forest uses during the last 5 years than during the previous 20 years since enactment of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 The annual rate of diversion between 2002 and 2008 was 50% higher than that between 1980 and 2002.

  12. 94.69% of the 921,759.53 hectares diverted for non-forest purpose from 1980 to 2003 were for developmental projects such as dams, mining, industries, and roads (Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 395, dated December 5, 2003). In the case of Vedanta mines in Niyamgiri or the POSCO steel plant project – the Ministry has continued to support diversion before the Supreme Court . Officially, some 1.73% (1,343,346 hectares) of forest is under encroachment as on31.3.2004. (1,696,083 ha in 2008; 1,794,879 ha as on 31st December 2009)

  13. FORESTS THAT AREN’T FORESTS In 2003 the total forest covered 23.57% of land area (774,740 sq km) (this includes tea/coffee, coconut plantations and sugarcane fields and agro-forestry plantations, groves, etc.). At least 12.4% of the land recorded as forest area has no forest at all. The figures are even more revealing in some States:

  14. Why are these lands recorded as forest areas? If they did exist, what happened to them? In Himachal and Uttaranchal, all “waste lands” were declared to be forests without any vegetation or land use surveys and included village pastures, grazing areas, or even snowbound peaks. 82.9% of the forest blocks in undivided Madhya Pradesh were never surveyed. THE AREA OF “NON-FOREST FOREST” IS AT LEAST SEVEN TIMES LARGER THAN THE AREA UNDER SO-CALLED ‘ENCROACHMENT’.

  15. RECORDED Forests That Aren’t RECORDED The government is equally confused about which lands come under which department’s control. In 1998, 68.86 million hectares of land was officially classified as ‘forest’, but in 1999 the total was 76.52 million hectares. This difference of 7.66 million hectares is presumably disputed between the two Departments. In MP alone, 1.23 million hectares is disputed between the two departments. In Orissa large parts have never been surveyed. How are people’s rights to be clear when the government itself does not know what is on this land? THE AREA DISPUTED BETWEEN THE REVENUE AND FOREST DEPARTMENTS IS 5.7 TIMES THE AREA SUPPOSEDLY UNDER ‘ENCROACHMENT.’

  16. Protecting forests by CHOPPING them down Between 1951 to 1979, 3.33 million hectares of “industrial” plantations were planted by clear felling “economically less important” natural forests. How much of 27.87 million hectares of the post-1979 plantations were done on similarly clear felled natural forests? THE AREA OF FORESTS FELLED FOR PRE-1979 PLANTATIONS IS 2.5 TIMES THE AREA SUPPOSEDLY UNDER ‘ENCROACHMENT.’

  17. RECOGNISING RIGHTS, BUT NOT QUITE 3.66 lakh hectares of cultivated forest land were regularised since 1990. More than 75% (namely 2,75,405 hectares) of the supposedly regularized land is in madhya pradesh. What is not mentioned is that most of this regularization never happened. In Madhya Pradesh, the regularization of 1,68,840 hectares was stayed by the supreme court, and it is unclear how much of the remaining 1,06,565 hectares was actually converted into revenue land. In Gujarat only 5% of claimants eventually got title – even though nearly 90% of their claims were supposedly accepted. Similar occurrences are reported from other states, but no figures are available. Let’s assume the best case scenario: use the real figure for Gujarat, the maximum possible for Madhya Pradesh (1,06,565 ha), and assume the figures for the other states to be correct. Then the area regularized since 1980 is less than one sixth of the land (1,67,594 ha) diverted for mining and other forest destroying projects.

  18. Wild Life Sanctuaries 508 existing wildlife sanctuaries cover an area of 3.60%of the total geographical area (118,236.94 sq km).  Another 217 sanctuaries are proposed covering an area of 16,669.44 sq km.  National Parks There are 97 existing national parks covering 1.16% of the geographical area (38,199.47  sq km).  Another 74 national parks are proposed covering an area of 16,630.08 sq km. More than 60% of national parks and 92% of sanctuaries had not completed settlement procedures, and estimated that between 3.7 million to 4.3 million people live inside protected areas.

  19. Of these…. 28 area declared Tiger Reserves covering roughly 5.6 % of forests in 17 states and over 1% of the country’s geographical area. The tiger habitats are also located in the 150 poorest districts mostly in Schedule V areas with the best of forests and dense forests. These and more tiger reserves were hurriedly declared Critical Tiger Habitats ILLEGALLY…violating WLPA 2006 amendment… in December 2007. The total tiger population in the 2001-2002 ‘census’ was 3,642 …….but over half of these tigers live outside tiger reserves !

  20. GIVING FOREST COMMUNITIES NEW LIVELIHOODS –SIX CENTURIES FROM NOW The Ministry of Environment and Forest’s perfect solution to those living inside protected areas – resettlement with new livelihoods. But these new livelihoods almost never seem to appear; Since 2001, 3898 families were ‘voluntarily’ resettled from national parks and sanctuaries. But….there are an estimated 4.3 million people 8.15 lakh families living inside national parks. At the current rate, it will take them 615 years to resettle all those living inside national parks and sanctuaries.

  21. · Delays and corruption of forest authorities destroyed nearly 11 % of the country's land that were privately owned forests after their take over. · Whenever roads reached earlier inaccessible forest areas due to developmental projects, there were large scale fellings of state forests. · Forest based industries exhausted available bamboo, or huge trees for pulpwood, at throw away prices. · Forest Development Corporations turned themselves into ‘Forest Destruction Corporations’ and clear felled huge tracts of rich natural forest without ensuring its replacement by productive forests. · Forest departments played a major role in destroying the sacred groves.

  22. 1730: Abhay Singh, the King of Jodhpur, opened a lime kiln to build his palace with fuel by felling Khejadi (Prosopis cineraria) trees from the nearby Khejadali village. But these trees were sacred to the Bishnois. Women hugged the trees…..Many were killed. The king ordered protection of Khejadi trees. Trees supplying vital leaf fodder for livestock of Garhwal Himalayas were given for manufacture of badminton rackets at Bareilly; the peasants rose in protest. Nelapattu village, Andhra Pradesh protect pelicans who nested on trees fringing an irrigation tank. When the breeding is over, the people used the nutrient rich waters to irrigate their fields. When declared a Bird Sanctuary, the Forest Department banned the use of tank for irrigation. The farmers turned against the birds, hurting both the cause of nature conservation and agriculture.

  23. Kokre-Bellur, a village near Bangalore welcomes pelicans to nest on trees scattered around the village. In Uttara Kannada district the Forest Department clear felled sacred groves extending over hundred or more hectares and replaced them by Eucalyptus plantations that miserably failed. Karnataka forest Department commercial felled from protected sacred groves of Coorg when large softwood trees became exhausted in the Reserve Forest areas. A giant Appimidi mango tree yielding mangoes famous for pickling worth hundreds of rupees annually was sold as low as Rs. 60. In Bedthi Hydroelectric Project in Uttara Kannada district, a particularly dense tract of forest outside the submersion area deliberately marked as falling within the submersion area, and was felled even before the project was officially cleared; the project was dropped later.

  24. The proposal to clear-fell large tracts of natural sal forests of Bastar and plant them with tropical pine was opposed by many tribal groups. The tropical pine was chosen for its supposedly high production in a pilot plantation of the species. But this pilot plantation lay in ruins. The whole affair was a gigantic fraud. The people’s plantations in Alakananda valley in Garhwal performed better (80% survival rate) than the plantation of the forestry establishment (20%survival rate). The Assam agitation of 1980s choked off the flow of timber from the Northeast. So raw materials and supplies from Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Canada began to pour in. With this transition, GOI imposed a ban on further clearing of natural forests in 1986. Nature-based, especially tiger-centered tourism, substituted supply of cheap raw material to the industry as an objective.

  25. MP State Forest Department earned 500 crores and spent 400 crores while people suffered direct costs of 94 crores in damage from wild life and spent an estimated Rs. 528 crores in attempts to prevent wildlife damage. Local people took a lead in apprehending the rich and famous poachers such as Salman Khan and Nawab of Pataudi and more recently an ex-Minister of Maharashtra, Dharmaram Atram.

  26. Blunder at Bharatpur The Bharatpur wetlands created by bunding of a rivulet in 1763, teemed with wildfowls becoming a great attraction for shooting parties of the maharaja of Bharatpur and his guests in the 1900’s. The British Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow boasted of having shot 4273 birds on a single day, on 12th November 1938, a feat commemorated with a stone plaque. Many of these rajas, landlords set up shikar companies after independence. Foreign tourists flocked to shoot tigers, panthers, gaur. This continuing massacre, now supported by jeeps and superior firearms, largely polished off the wild life by 1970’s. The Wild Life Protection Act 1972, replaced this shikar business with eco-tourism in 1980’s. The large heronries in the rainy season and the enormous flocks of migratory birds visiting in winter made it one of the first wildlife sanctuaries. Buffalo grazing and collection of khus grass by local people were traditionally practiced in this biodiversity rich habitat. Bharatpur declared as  Keoladeo Ghana National Park  in 1982.

  27. Buffalo grazing was banned. There were protests….seven people were killed in the firing ……but the ban was enforced. Waterfowls and the visiting Siberian cranes declined. There were no buffalos to keep under check a water loving grass Paspalum rendering it unfit for waterfowl. Visiting Siberian cranes declined. Prevention of digging for khus roots prevented loosening of the soil that give access to corms and tubers to the Siberian cranes.

  28. Sariska disaster Tiger citing became rare in the Tiger Reserve of Sariska near Delhi since 2003. Yet the Forest Department claimed that tigers still roamed Sariska. CBI reported that all tigers had been poached out of Sariska by 2004. Carcasses were skinned and left to rot. This creates a grand stink and it was inconceivable that the official machinery would not be in the know. CBI concluded that this must have been done with official connivance. But….in the end, while many villagers were beaten up, no government servant was called to book.

  29. Of the 5,653 distinct communities, 635 are "tribes" or "Adivasis.“ 577 ST communities number 84.32 million (2001) comprising 8.32% of total population. Indian subcontinent the abode of more than a quarter of the world's 350 million or so indigenous peoples. Great Andamanese numbering only 43 to the Gonds numbering more than 5,000,000. The alien concept of private property with Permanent Settlement of the British in 1793. The colonization of the forests commenced with the Forest Act of 1864 and consolidated with the Indian Forest Act of 1927 reduced the rights of Adivasis to mere privileges conferred by the state.

  30. Revolts Beginning with the Pahariya in Bihar in 1778, the Kolis of Maharashtra (1784-85), the Tamar of Chota Nagpur in present-day Jharkhand (1789, 1794-1795, 1801), the Chuari Movement in Bihar (1795-1800), the Koyas in Andhra Pradesh (1803, 1862, 1879, 1880, 1822), the tribal revolts in Chotanagpur (1807- 1808, 1811, 1817, 1820), the Bhils in Western India (1809-1828, 1846, 1857-1858), the Kols in Chotangpur (1818, 1831-1832), the Singphos in Assam (1825, 1828, 1843, 1849, 1869), the Mishmis in Arunachal Pradesh (1827, 1855), the tribals of Assam (1828), the Khasis of Assam (1829), the Mundas of Jharkhand (1820, 1832, 1867, 1889), the Kherwar uprising in Jharkhand (1832-1823), the Lushais of Assam (1834-1841, 1842, 1850, 1860, 1871-1872, 1892), the Daflas of Assam (1835, 1872- 1873), the Naiks of Gujarat (1838, 1868), the Khampti in Assam (1839-1843), the Gonds of Bastar in Chattisgarh (1842), the Kondhs in Orissa (1850),

  31. the North Kachari hills of Assam (1854), the Santals in Jharkhand (1855, 1869-1870), the Naikdas in Gujarat (1858), the Syntengs of the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya (1860-1862), the Phulaguri uprising in Assam (1861), the Juangs in Orissa (1861), the Sentinel Islanders in the Andaman Islands (1867, 1883), the Raig-mels of Assam (1868-1869), the Nagas of Nagaland (1879, 1932, 1963-1971), the Bastar tribal uprising (1811), the Tana Bhagat rebellion in Bihar (1913, 1914, 1920, 1921), the Gond and Kolam revolt in Andhra Pradesh (1941), the Koraput revolt in Orissa (1942), revolts against the Japanese occupation army by the tribes of the Andaman Islands (1942-1945), the Mizo revolt in Mizoram (1966-1971), the Warli revolt of Maharashtra (1956-1958), the Naxalbari in West Bengal (1967-71)…………………………………..

  32. ……….and so on …….. the resistance continued ….. into the contemporary times in various forms………….

  33. Scheduled District Act of 1874, Government of India Act of 1919 and later the Government of India Act of 1935. • The British Crown's dominions in India consisted of four politico-administrative arrangements: • the presidency areas, where the Crown was supreme; • the residency areas, where the British Crown was present through the resident, and the ruler of the realm was subservient to the Crown; • the agency (tribal) areas, where the agent governed in the name of the Crown but left the local self-governing institutions untouched; and • the excluded areas (northeast), where the representatives of the Crown was but figureheads.

  34. Articles 371A and 371G for Nagaland and Mizoram respectively, confer special powers of greater autonomy, a result of the early militant struggles. Article 244 (Schedule V for the mid-Indian region and Schedule VI for the northeast region) of the Constitution of India. The state-sponsored development and conservation have displaced, mainly in the mid-Indian region 10 million Adivasis. Of the 21.3 million displaced for various "development" projects between 1951 and 1990 alone, 8.54 million were STs constituting 40% of the displaced persons, predominantly from forest areas. Only 2.1 million of them reportedly rehabilitated; the remaining 6.4 million were left to fend for themselves

  35. The Self-Rule Act: Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) enacted in 1996 for the V Schedule. The Recovery of the Commons: The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 emerged at this late hour to rectify the "historic injustice“.

  36. 1793 : Permanent Settlement of Lord Cornwallis 1874 : Excluded Areas Act 1919 : Government of India Act 1927 : Indian Forest Act 1935 : Government of India Act 1952 : Forest Policy 1977 : 42nd Amendment - State to concurrent List 1980 : Forest Conservation Act 1990 : No.13-1/90 - FP(1,2,3,5) guidelines of MoEF 1995 : Godavarman Thirumulpad SC admitted 24.12.1996 : PESA comes into force SC - Dictionary meaning of 'forest' 14.02.2000 : IA No.548 of 202/95 SC order prohibiting of dead, dying and diseased trees from NPS & WLS 13.11.2000 : SC 'pending further orders, no de-reservation of forests/NPs/Sanctuaries shall be effected' 23.11.2001 : IA no.703 in WP(C) No.202 of 1995 restraining from regularisation. No further regularisation

  37. 3. May.2002 : MoEF issues order outlining a "time- bound action plan" for the eviction of encroachers by September 30, 2002. May 2002 to March 2004 alone, evictions were carried out from 152,400.110 hectares. About 300,000 forest dwellers evicted during this period. From 2002 to April 19, 2006, when the eviction was rampant, 305,266.39 hectares of forest area were in fact diverted for non-forestry purposes 09.May.2002 : SC constitutes Central Empowered Committee 10 October 2002 : Maharashtra order for regularisation 30 October 2002 : IG of Forests reiterated 1990 orders

  38. 30 October 2002 : SC - "Net Present Value' from user agency at Rs.5.80 lakhs to Rs.9.20 lakhs per ha from 30.122.2002 and remitted to Compensatory Afrorestation Fund Management & Planning Authority (CAMPA) set up on 23.04.2004 2002 : Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD)launched 19-20 July 2003 : Jan Sunwai (900 from 13 states) MoEF Issued Clarificatory order 03 Feb. 2004 : MoEF stepping up a process for conversion of forest villages stayed by SC 05 Feb. 2004 : Regularisation of rights of tribals on forest lands cut off date 31.12.1993 stayed by SC 21 July 2004 : MoEF Affidavit in SC on 'historical injustice' October 2004 : CSD discussion with National Advisory Committee/P.M 25 April 2005 : Draft Bill

  39. 21 Dec. 2004 : MoEF orders no eviction of STs pending settlement of rights 08 January 2005 : NAC discussed CSD document 19 January 2005 : PM Meeting 7-21 March 2005 : Dharna 5000 participates, 1 lakh protest; filing of claims intensified 03 May 2005 : Draft law comes to cabinet - blocked 12 May 2005 : MoEF says no eviction of forest dwellers who have submitted claims 10 July 2005 : Last date for submitting comments on draft Bill 20-21 July 2005 : TSG redrafts Bill 5 August 2005 : The Tiger Task Force submits report stated that "the protection of the tiger is inseparable from the protection of the forests it roams in. But the protection of these forests is itself inseparable from the fortunes of people who, in India, inhabit forest areas" 15 August 2005 : National Protest Day - 180,000 participates 08.November 2005 : Jail Bharo Andolan over 90,000 arrested 13 Dec 2005 : Bill placed in Parliament

  40. 03. Dec 2005 : Joint Parliamentary Committee constituted 28 April 2006 : JPC depositions over 23 May 2006 : JPC submits report to Parliament 21-25 August 2006 : Protests in Delhi 03 September 2006 : WLPA Amendment (No.39 of 2006) - Tiger Amendment passed 22 November 2006 : Indefinite protest 29 November 2006 : Nationwide protest Between 15-25 Lakh protests 15.december 2006 : Bill passed in Lok Sabha 18 December 2006 : Bill passed in Rajya Sabha 29 December 2006 : President signs 2 January 2007 : Issued in Gazette for public information February 2007 : TSG for Rules constituted May 2007 : TSG submits draft Rules 28-31 December 2007 : Critical Tiger Habitats notified 28 TRs+8 31. December 2007 : Act notified 01. January 2008 : Rules notified

  41. As per the information collected till 28th February 2010, • more than 27.16 lakh claims filed • more than 9.92 lakh claims pending • more than 9.29 lakh titles rejected • more than 7.59 lakh titles distributed • more than 36 thousand titles ready for distribution.

  42. THE FOREST RIGHTS ACT Who is eligible under this Act? Those who “primarily reside in forests” [section 2(c) / 2(o)] And are “dependent on forest land or forests for bona fide livelihood needs” [section 2(c) / 2(o)]

  43. If the claimant is an ST, they should be “in the area where they are scheduled” [sections 2(c) and 4(1)] - ST certificate to claim rights as an ST [section 2(c) and Form in Rules] If the claimant is not an ST in the area where they are scheduled, they can make claims as “other traditional forest dwellers” Non-ST's are also eligible, as long as they satisfy the 3 generations requirement. [section 2(o)] - They must have resided in forests or forest land for three generations before 2005, where “generation” is defined as twenty five years; a total period of seventy five years – i.e., since 1930. Proof of three generations of residence.

  44. What are the Rights that can be claimed? To community forest resource Customary common forest land within the traditional or customary boundaries of the village or seasonal use of landscape in the case of pastoral communitiesto which the community had traditional access; 1. Right to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community forest resource which they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use [Section 3(i)]; 2. To ensure that the decisions taken in the Gram Sabha to regulate access to community forest resources and stop any activity which adversely affects the wild animals, forest and the biodiversity are complied with [Section 5 (d)]. To Land Being Occupied or Cultivated or Under Customary Use 1. Directly as Land Under Occupation [section 3(a)] 2. Conversion of Titles / Leases / Grants [section 3(g)] 3. As “Disputed Lands” [section 3(f)]

  45. Minor Forest Produce [sections 3(b)/ 3(c)] Includes “bamboo, brush wood, stumps, cane, tussar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers” and so on [section 2(i)]; “traditionally collected” from within or outside village boundaries [section 3(1)(c)]; Fish and other produce of water bodies are covered under a separate right [3(1)(d)]. Ownership, collection, use and dispose from any forest area traditionally collected falling both within and outside village boundaries [section 3(1)(c)]. Also traditional nistari rights/rights once recorded under Princely States or zamindars, but may be ‘extinguished’ or ‘vested’ in the state since Government take-over (section 3(1)(b)). Can be transported by headloads, handcarts or bicycles. Motorised transport is not allowed in forest areas.

  46. Grazing, Water and Other Community Rights (section 3(1)(d)) The right to graze livestock [section 3(1)(d)]. Pastoralist communities (both settled and nomadic) have a right to access forest land on a seasonal basis [section 3(1)(d)] for similar uses. The right to access forest land on a seasonal basis to the community and its members. Conversion of Unrecorded Settlements and Forest Villages to Revenue Villages [section 3(1)(h)]

  47. “Habitat” (section 3(1)(e)) (applies only to pre-agricultural and primitive tribal groups) “Primitive tribal groups” (such as the Juangs, the Chenchus, the Baigas etc.) and “preagricultural communities” (such as shifting cultivators and hunter/gatherers). “Habitat” is the traditional area in which these communities have lived, even if that should be inside reserved / protected forests [section 2(h)]. •Right to reside inside these forest areas in accordance with their traditions and customs; •Right to prevent these forests from being destroyed (since that would deprive these communities of their habitat); •Right to continue socio-cultural, religious and livelihood social activities in these forest areas that made them into a “habitat.”

  48. Right to Rehabilitation in case of Illegal Eviction or Forcible Displacement (sections 3(1)(m) and 4(8)) The eviction is illegal if notice prior to eviction was not served or if the forest settlement in the area is not complete, or if the settlement is faulty. And no compensation or rehabilitation was provided. It is the responsibility of the Forest Department to prove that compensation was provided. A right to land for rehabilitation only if the land that was taken from was not used for its purpose within five years of being acquired, and if no land was provided at the time of being displaced. Once evicted/displaced and occupied forest land for livelihood after that, you cannot be evicted from the land you have occupied, as you have a right to on site rehabilitation under section 3(1)(m) and to land compensation under section 4(8).

More Related