Why this March

Dear Friends,

Our forefathers have sacrificed their lives for the freeing, beautifying and conserving Jharkhand. To conserve the greenery, the free-flowing rivers and creeks, tall mountains, ever-fertile farms, our forefathers have fought wild animals like snakes, tigers and bears. Toady, we need to save our land and the sand, water, forest, trees, rivers, creeks, farms therein from the destructive attacks and theft by the rich, the corporate families and the government. You all are aware of what is currently unfolding in Jharkhand.

Thousands of our forefathers like Siddu, Kanhu, Sindray, Bindray, Tilka Manzi, Veer Buddhu Bhagat, Veer Birsa Munda, Donka Munda, Jatra Tana Bhagat, Manki Munda, Fulon, Jhanon, Devmani, fought with the British government to attain independence. Today, the Indian Constitution in its fifth schedule has given special rights to the tribal people, aborigines, farmers and labourers. It is our responsibility to protect our rights and to ensure that they are implemented.

Till today, the government has organized four momentums in Jharkhand and have made a deal with the rich and the corporate companies to handover a large chunk of forest, land and water resources belonging to the tribal people of Jharkhand, the aborigines and the farmers. This is definitely an attack on the fifth schedule of the constitution and the provisions made in Pesa Act for the villagers. Once the ongoing revision survey is complete, a new account book would be made on the basis of it. After that the account book made in 1932 would be cancelled. That would end the traditional rights of the tribal people, the aborigines and the farmers.

Once the Land Acquisition Act, 2017, and the rest of the abovementioned acts come into action, the Agricultural Land would be readily transferred for non-agricultural use. As a result, the farmland would start decreasing and the quarrying accidents would increase. Today, the whole state is living in fear of displacement. The citizens of Palamu, Latehar and Gumla districts are fighting against the impending displacement from being in the range of the proposed Netarhat Field, from Tiger Project, Wildlife Corridor. The farmers of Badkagaon, Hajaribaug, are fighting against the displacement from the coal extraction plan. In Maoudda, in Adani Power Plant, the farmland is being deliberately taken from the farmers. When the farmers are protesting, they are being told that if they do not surrender their lands, the land would be taken away from them by hook or crook. The crop that was ready for harvest was flattened in a second using a bulldozer. In all the areas of the state, the citizens are fighting against the impending displacement. Various tactics have been used to destroy the communal integrity of the tribal people of Potka area of Sinhbhum and villagers of Khunti-Gumla district, where Mittal Steel Plant is proposed. In the name of caste and religion, people are manipulated to fight each other.

Implementation of Forest Rights Act in Jharkhand: Trends and Challenges

Granting of the forest rights to scheduled tribes and other forest dwellers in provision 2006 and granting of FRA to forest dwelling communities for a short period of time, both accept the historical injustice done to the enlisted scheduled tribes and other forest dwellers. The objectives of the said provision are to protect the democratic and traditional rights on the forest land and resources therein and to establish a democratic, community-based forest management. The complete implementation of the FRA was included in the fact that the act would serve as a conducive process for the recognition of the rights of the forest and the residents of the forest during the national land movement. This fact was ignored by the government during the uniting of forests. After Independence, the attitude towards the forest dwellers did not change much. As a result, they were either displaced in the name of industrial development or were labelled as those encroaching the forest. Due to this perspective towards development and protection, more than 20 million of the forest dwellers were discriminated against. That is why FRA has not only become instrumental for recognizing the land rights of the forest dwellers but it also provides legal support to the communities for their protests against illegal and forceful abuse during development programs.

This law assumes and gives the rights to the Local Government/Gram Sabha during the process of recognizing rights. In addition, it also recognizes the previously existing 14 rights of the communities on the forest land in all sections including the protected areas. The act recognizes the right of the individual as well as the community of usage and sell of natural resources. This act has the potential of making the forest maintenance and protection governance fundamentally democratic as it involves the strengthening of the local government/Gram Sabha for the management and governance of forests within the traditional boundaries of a village and for the protection of forests, forest life and biodiversity. However, this is not the case for the state of Jharkhand. After the analysis of the state of implementation of FRA in Jharkhand and a discussion with the stakeholders, who were a part of the that implementation process of FRA, it becomes clear that the nature and boundaries of granting of the rights of forest dwellers is highly ineffective. There is no serious effort to resolve the increasing number of prolonged petitions. In many of the districts, the non-acceptance of the petition is also very high. The SDLC and DLC meetings are not taking place regularly in order to resolve the rights of the petitionary. There is no effort seen for granting the forests rights and there is no coordination between Revenue Department and forest department for accelerating the process of granting forest rights. In such a situation, the reason behind the nature and process of implementation of FRA being slow and steady needs to be discussed.

In Jharkhand, there are challenges in implementing the granting of both IFR and CFR: what kind of efforts should be taken to make the preparation of forest resource management more comfortable/facilitative; finally, how to ensure that the earning of the livelihood of people with the help of FRA. In Jharkhand, there are 16452 villages with 1994387 hectre of their land covered by forests. Here, the villagers can be granted the forest rights as a community and 14 lakh individuals are eligible for the individual forest rights.