Illegal and Arbitrary Eviction of Adivasis from Forests in AP, Telangana

By Palla Trinadha Rao

Published: 25th March 2015 06:00 AM

 -THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS

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  Adivasis in Andhra Pradesh (File)

In 2006 the Forest Rights Recognition Act was enacted to reverse historic injustice done to millions of Adivasis and other forest-dwellers who inhabit India’s forest landscape. The Act recognised two types of rights _ individual and community _ the Adivasis have to forest land.

Despite this recognition, the historical violence perpetrated by forest officials against Adivasis continues in the forest areas of Khammam district of Telangana. A special drive in the forest areas, allegedly at the directive of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, exposes a series of forest land evictions, posing a serious threat to the survival of the Koyas and other forest-dwellers. The recent decision of the government not to entertain any further claim of Adivasis under the Forest Rights Recognition Act has given teeth to forest staff to suppress the rights of Adivasis.

In spite of several orders from the High Court against eviction of Adivasis from forest lands, forest officials are evicting  Koyas and others from occupation of over 1,200 acres in Enkur, Julurpadu and Dummugudem mandals. Further, they are  threatening to evict Adivasis from 1,300 acres in Pinapaka and Chandrugonda mandals. The Forest Rights Act says that no claimant shall be evicted from forest areas until the determination of forest land rights inquiry is completed.

Vasudha Nagaraj, a women’s rights activist and lawyer, says, “People in Telangana voted for the new state in the hope that the status of Adivasis would be elevated from ‘encroacher’ to that of a ‘rightful owner’ of forest land. But their hope has been dashed.”

The Union ministry of tribal affairs has admitted recently that implementation of the Forest Rights Recognition Act was tardy and state governments were responsible for the situation.

The Scheduled Area of Telugu states spreads over nine districts _ Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh; and Khammam, Warangal, Adilabad and Mahbubnagar in Telangana.

West Godavari has a very poor record of implementing the Act compared to other districts in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Sixty-seven pc of the total claims of Adivasis in West Godavari district seeking recognition of their rights to forest land occupation were rejected. Of the 33 pc claims allowed, forest land titles were distributed only to 17 pc, permitting each claimant to hold an average of 2.22 acres against the legal permissible limit of 10 acres.

In the second phase, claimants submitted 1,435 claims covering 5,925 acres but only a single claim was allowed in West Godavari by 2014. The forest land holding size is preceded by the average land holding size of 1.86 acres permitted to claimants in Visakhapatnam district. East Godavari stood  second in rejections with recorded data of 58 pc of total claims.

As regards community claims, surprisingly only one claim is shown as registered covering an extent of 2 acres in Mahbubnagar district, while the maximum number of rejected claims were in Warangal district. Of the 1,222 community claims received in Warangal, 1,088 were rejected (89 pc).

But the tribal welfare department’s data on  community claims shows a distorted picture. Community forest rights claims are clubbed with the forest claims of Vana Samrakshana Samithis (VSS) at the instance of the forest department. Allowing VSS to hold community forest land tenure is to continue the hegemony of forest department over forest by disempowering the constitutional body, Gram Sabha, a unit of local governance under the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Area Act, 1996.

The undivided Andhra Pradesh granted community forest rights titles to more than 1,669 VSSs over 9.48 lakh acres of forest land by May 2010 instead of gram sabha or community as such against the letter and spirit of the Forest Rights Recognition Act as well as the PESA Act. The Union ministry of tribal affairs held that the grant of Community Forestry Rights titles to VSS was illegal and asked the principal chief conservator of forests of Andhra Pradesh for its withdrawal.

But the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments did not take steps for withdrawal of community forest land titles granted to VSSs and hand over the same to tribal communities. There is a need to echo the concerns of Adivasis and forest- dwellers.