India’s forest-dwellers: From Owners to Encroachers

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF6pYsIkPLM Duration: 515.5s

Speaker (00:05): It is important to realize how the tribals have lost their rights on the natural resources — land, forest, and other livelihoods — is very, very, very, very important in that sense. Historically, they have been living in these mountains, hilly areas where the reach of the administration was not very much there. They were living there, largely living a sort of a self-sufficient life, very little, few exchanges with outside world. The of the of the kings or whatever, princely states or whatever other governments were there, their reach, of their administrative reach was also very, very, very minimal. So they were largely on their own. And so, and also the resources were abundant compared to the populace. Populace was really populace and density was relatively low. So people used to cultivate their lands, and they did not have to really think of future, in the sense that they were cultivating lands. They were collecting forest produce, selling forest produce. All these things — technically, all the forest areas belong to the state or the princely king or whatever, the princely state or any other government. So legally, all these areas belong to the state. But in effect, people were enjoying all these rights. They could cultivate whatever piece of land they were cultivating. They really did not have to worry about future also, in the sense that when the son, family and ladies and the sons get adult, they would start cultivating the new piece of that. So, and one thing was clear — clearing the forest, yes. And this second cultivation started only after population started beginning to rise. So, so the — because then now you, no longer you can depend on collecting through, say, hunting sort of a, or. So then settled agricultural practices started as population began to rise. And then also, the whole thing was that there were no, there was nothing in those, in the, in in the way of, in which that the state has given you right. People themselves acquired rights of the lands by clearing the forest, starting cultivating. So by basically, to open up the forest and clear the land for cultivation requires a lot of labor and a lot of effort. So once a person puts in effort to clear a piece of land and starts cultivating it, the remainder of the society, all the remaining people, they would respect that right. And they would, they they would without any law, also, would understand that this happens, and they would — it passes from him to his son or or daughter, whatever it is. But they basically, it’s a sort of, his right is recognized by everybody. So once you put in your labor on the natural right, on the natural resource of land, you can’t, like to work it. That was the situation. But none of this was in, on government records — this person is cultivating this land. Although in the society, everybody knows who is cultivating which land, what are there. So those sorts of things were already there, but nobody knows that. That was one thing. Settlement and forest also. Similarly with forest. They, legally, they had no right over the forest. But in actual practice, most of them had access to forest produce. They could collect the forest, sell not only just minor forest produce, but also teak and other major forest produce, bamboo, everything. If you look through these Gazetteer records, you’ll find that there have been traditions where, where people have been collecting forest produce and selling them. Similarly with the homes, their bandhs, their habitats, their settlements. And so those also — whenever they can create houses, this practice continued till late, not only before the independence, but up till now, this practice was very much there. But eventually, British has decided that since they have, they are the ruler, they had defeated the previous ruler, and these lands and forests belong to the ruler. So now by legally, it belongs to them. So they they are not bound to respect any of the rights of the local people. That was one thing. The — and this thing started from 1927 onwards. Although there were previous history that forest rights, forest acts were enacted previously, but the main main main assault on the forest areas or the tribal areas of, you know, and and many other states started after 1937. So, historically, it is very well known that during this settlement of forest, during this of forest, the rights which the people had over forest — both forest and the lands which they were cultivating — they were not recognized. This was very much true for the colonial period, but even after independence. After independence, you can, you’ll have seen so many forest settlement reports of the forest settlement officers. Revenue officers were appointed. They went to the village, stayed in the village for one month, actually surveyed all the lands that were being cultivated by the families, individual families. They surveyed them. They — each person is cultivating how much of land. All these records were prepared. And as per the Forest Act, all these lands would have been surveyed because these calculations are made prior to the notification for forest. So they were cultivating this land, so they should have regularized these lands and given proper rights, made them as agricultural land. Most of them, they recorded the rights. And in the end, they treated as encroachers because they did not meet a specific demand of twenty years back. This would have one possession of twenty-five, thirty years. Then only it can be recognized, as if they treated as if the land was already forest. Although land was not forest. There were new land. For these — and these practices, princely states were there in many areas, princely states were there. Whatever forests were there in the princely states, after independence, they were overnight declared as reserve forest without carrying out any settlement process. Who is contributing there? Who is living there? Nothing was, nothing was recorded, and everything was declared as. So overnight, by declaration of a piece of land and the area as reserve forest, people became sort of encroachers because although they were cultivating this land from very beginning, they were collect — not only encroachers as far as agriculture is concerned, the encroachers and illegal collectors as far as forest goods were concerned. Because now the forest would be state, and even minor forest goods, bamboo, everything belong to state. And whoever collects anything, it becomes a thief. He’s an illegal encroacher or illegal collector. So did this in, in a way, this is the main bane of our tribal areas. This is responsible for the poverty of these tribal, tribal areas, for people living in the, in this forest. But — and also that you have criminalized the whole section of. All these thousands of people living and eking out their livelihood. Right? Doing their own labor, collect, cultivating lands, collecting produce, and buying, selling. Everything is illegal. It’s criminal. We have criminalized the whole section of people and wronged them. And that is the main important — because now that, so that led to so many problems. This is only in the tribal areas you find that areas where the people are living are very, they are very rich. So many resources are there. Minerals are there. Forests are there. Lands are there. And yet local communities or local individuals have no right or any, no legal right over any of these resources. That is how, that is the context of historical injustice.