The Challenges leading to the Forest Rights Act, 2006

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqCp8knf-_A Duration: 471.1s

Speaker (00:05): From the nineteen eighties, people like us were struggling, were helping the people to struggle and have their rights recognized. So in many of the states, there were some government resolutions also passed that regularize the land. Say, for example, in Gujarat, there was one 1972 resolution. And then in 1992 resolution, they had stated, they provided that so and so person was cultivating land before 1980, he or she should be, her, their, his or her rights will be recognized. But in Gujarat, we saw that most of the people who were cultivating, they didn’t get their, they could get the rights recognized. So there was a big, I mean, big movement. Almost means the people, the tribal people, and the people like us were, of course, had means were struggling to get it. At that time, meanwhile, what happened that in 1995, there was a case in the Supreme Court. One Mr. Godavarman filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court against the illicit cutting that was taking place in the estate that was there, his own forefathers had nurtured. So Supreme Court took up this case. Not only that, the Supreme Court gave many orders regarding this. Supreme Court extended the scope of the of this PIL and extended to all the states of India. So it was known as forest case, and it is, only it is now also, it is very much there in the Supreme Court. So in 2001, in November 2001, Mr. Michael’s query, he filed an interlocutory application in this case that there are so many encroachers, and that is very worrisome. So the Supreme Court just wanted to ask, wanted to know how much encroachment exists in five or six states. And the Supreme Court passed an order on that. Interestingly, taking a cue from this, the Ministry of Environment and Forest, what they did, they passed an order. They just, they just wrote out a circular to all the states, not only five to six states, but to all the states, asking the state governments to remove all the encroachments in their respective states within three months. So this order was passed. This circular was brought out in on 05/03/2002. And they gave the timeline of that before September 30, they they have to remove all the encroachments. And it happened also in Maharashtra, in Odisha, in Assam. Many of these forest departments, they started removing these encroachments. They started razing the houses also with the help of elephants also. So at that time, there was very much, you and I. And many many people like us, this ticket means for us, it was enough, for enough was enough. So we worked together, and then this Campaign for Survival and Dignity was born. That is a organization. It is a loose organization. Well, it’s it’s an umbrella organization in which most of, means, most of the organizations and grassroots activists and individuals who were working on this issue, tribal’s rights, they joined this campaign. We were also part of that, and then we lobbied and we campaigned for this. We met the prime minister, at that time was Manmohan Singh, and Manmohan Singh suggested that we should have a statute. I’m not going into the details of the history. Why he suggested this? Because in the time of Vajpayee government, there was the Ministry of Environment. They had brought out one circular to regularize this thing, but the Supreme Court shut, shut it down, that shut it down that because of this, this is a election gimmick. And so it is no longer, it should not be valid. So Manmohan Singh himself suggested that there should be a statute, and the nodal agency should not be the Environment and Forest Ministry, but it should be the Tribal Ministry. And at that time, this, this the seeds were sown in this meeting with the, month with the prime minister. He also suggested that some of the people from campaign also should be a part of this drafting process, and it was, I think, it was very good because it, because this is the first statute. This is the first act which has recognized the role of the Gram Sabha. Otherwise, what has happened? In most, in not most, in all of the acts, it is the, the officers either from the revenue department or from the forest department. It is the officers who would decide who cultivates where and all these things, and they prepare a basic list of the people. Here, the whole situation was changed. It was the Gram Sabha which should initiate the process of inviting the claims. And then it is, it is the Gram Sabha which decides, which examines and decides the claims of the individuals. So in that sense, this act was a very, I think, landmark act, and it was unprecedented. And this was the, I think it was, it was the beginning of the drafting process, and it was the beginning of the act. So after, means we had to lobby with all the political parties and everything. Meantime, it they they were the years of too much lobbying and campaigning and everybody, means all the parties, because this act was passed unanimously in the parliament, and it was passed in 2006. So, so one year was left before the rules were notified and the act came into being, came to be implemented. And in January 2008, the Forest Rights Act was notified, and it’s done, the implementation of the act was started.