‘Govt Cares for Neither Tribals Nor Forests’: Lawyer Ritwick Dutta // Millions of forest-dwelling indigenous people in India to be evicted
The Supreme Court, on
13 February, in Wildlife First & Others [Petitioner(s)] versus
Ministry of Forest & Environment and Others, ordered over 16
states, including Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and
West Bengal, to initiate the process of eviction of Scheduled Tribes (STs) and
Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) from forestland. The petitioners had
demanded that all those whose claims over traditional forestland are rejected
under the Forest Rights Act (2006), should be evicted by state governments. A three-judge bench of
Arun Mishra, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee passed the order, giving states
time till 27 July to evict Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (OTFDs), and directed the states to submit a report on it. The Supreme Court
order has drawn much flak from both environmentalists and tribal right
activists.
Following are
excerpts from an interview with environment lawyer Ritwick Dutta:
The Quint: The
petitioners against the Forest Rights Act 2006 want to evict forest people
whose claims to their land have been rejected, even as the ministry has
admitted that many rejections need to be reviewed. Is there a loophole in the
so-called ‘landmark’ FRA that allows for tribals to be evicted on some basis?
On what basis can tribals’ claims to their land be rejected?
Ritwick Dutta: The Forest Rights Act 2006 recognizes the
rights of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other traditional
forest-dwellers. Now, there are two criteria that they have kept in mind –
there is a cut off period for those who claim to be indigenous forest dwellers,
to prove they have been on the site for three generations at least. One
generation is 25 years. So the law doesn’t say that NO forest-dweller or ST
shall be evicted; all it says is that it will recognize the rights of all STs
and other traditional forest dwellers, by following due process of law, and the
act says that no ST and other forest-dwelling community shall be evicted or
their rights interfered with, till the process of determination of status of
the tribals is completed. So the court is essentially saying, “what happens
once this process has been completed?”
The
Quint: While the SC has passed a detailed order giving eviction directions
to the Chief Secretaries of 21 states, the Ministry has admitted that many of
these rejections of tribals’ claims to their land need to be reviewed. In this
scenario, can the SC go ahead and have tribals, whose claims have been
rejected, evicted WITHOUT review?
Ritwick Dutta: The review process (of the status of
tribals) has to be completed. Now suppose, a person makes a claim to land, and
that claim is rejected, that will qualify as the first stage of rejection. That
person has the right to then go appeal at the sub-divisional level committee,
and then the district level committee. There are many layers of appeal provided
in the law. In this case, the states can respond saying the entire process is
still not over. And till the process is not over, action (of eviction) can’t be
taken, because that is not in consonance with the law. At the same time, the
FRA also does not take into consideration the rights to any NON-traditional
forest dweller. It is thus, an issue of human rights vs tribal rights. This law
will not protect those who are recent encroachers upon tribal land. Take the
Delhi Ridge, for example. If, say, three communities suddenly decide to settle
there and end up staying there for 10 years, it doesn’t mean they have a right
to that land. What FRA clearly states is that the forest-dwellers will have to
prove their status.
The
Quint: Coming to the question of land approvals. Under the law, what is
required of the tribals to prove their forest-dweller status and claim to land?
Ritwick Dutta: The FRA does not emphasize on written
documentation. Say, there is an old / ancient tree in the village, or old
temples, even oral statements are admissible under the FRA, taken as a basis to
establish three generations of existence, and then the recognition of that
process has to be done by the Gram Sabha, not by the government. There are
places in which the process has not been followed, and especially in areas
where there is an aim to do mining, build dams, they are not recognizing the
rights in accordance with law. But in that situation, the forest-dwelling
community can consider an appeal process. I’m working on cases on FRA in many
places, from Himachal to Manipur, where the process (of review) has not been
completed. And therefore, we have to go to the next stage to recognize that the
first stage did not consider all the documents provided for tribal land claims.
But the problem is, when will the entire process be fully completed? And one of
the issues is that will it be a continuous process – of everybody coming in and
occupying land, or is it something that will protect the rights of the
indigenous people?
The
Quint: Where does the buck stop?.. read more:
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/supreme-court-tribal-forest-land-eviction-order-2019-general-elections#gs.aoUGvSB9Millions of forest-dwelling indigenous people in India to be evicted
