Struggle Against Forest Bureaucracy in Tiger Reserves; Massive Demonstration in Tamil Nadu
In December last year, the Ministry of Environment and Forests engaged in a massive, illegal effort to hastily identify and declare “critical tiger habitats” (CTH's) in all the tiger reserves across India. Where the law requires a scientific, case by case analysis of each tiger reserve and public consultations with the people of the area, the Ministry sought to bypass all legal requirements and instead arbitrarily declared 36 such “habitats” within a few weeks. The aim? To reinstate the arbitrary, unaccountable forest bureaucracy as the key players in deciding how tiger conservation should take place, and to ensure easy access to the enormous amounts of money allocated in the name of tigers and of “relocation” of people. The result? Huge areas, including the entirety of the existing tiger reserves (with their buffer zones) and even some new areas, were all declared “critical tiger habitats” with no scientific justification.
They have not been able to get away with it. Protests and opposition to the illegal CTH declarations have been mounting in several tiger reserves. They reached their peak yesterday with a massive demonstration in Gudalur, in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, where over 70,000 people demanded respect for their forest rights and marched against the illegal declaration of the entire Mudumalai protected area as a “critical tiger habitat.” Organised by the “People's Livelihoods Protection Movement”, an umbrella organisation of people's organisations and political parties, this was perhaps the single largest demonstration the area has ever seen.
This is no contest between “people” and “wildlife.” The law does not say that tigers cannot be protected or that inviolate areas should not be created. The law does not say that tiger reserves cannot be established. It only requires that, when doing so, the forest authorities engage in an open, objective and independent process with public input, and that no one be forcibly relocated without their consent. This procedure has been demanded by environmentalists and conservationists themselves for decades, tired as they are of a system that has only violated people's rights, alienated local communities and led to increasing conflict, all without contributing to conservation.
But even this is too much for the forest bureaucracy. Any threat to their power to arbitrarily declare any area “critical”, any threat to their ability to extract state funds and extort bribes through harassment, is deemed a threat to tiger conservation. The Gudalur protest is but the most visible manifestation of the resistance to this authoritarianism. In Ranthambore, under intense pressure, four villages have refused relocation efforts. In Tadoba, Melghat and Kanha, resistance is growing. In Buxa, the relocation effort was withdrawn after local protest. Over the coming months this will only intensify. Protests are expected in several tiger reserves in January.
The full text of the resolution passed at the Gudalur protest is below.
Campaign for Survival and Dignity
MAKKAL VAZHVURIMAI PADUKAPPU IYAKKAM
(People's Livelihood Rights Protection Movement)
Advocates Law Chambers, Calicut Road, Gudalur – Nilgiris
Phone No : 04262 – 261827
President: Adv. Koshy Baby Secretary: M. Pandiaraj Treasurer: Raja Thangavel Convenor: N. Vasu Advisor: M.S. Selvaraj
(translation from Tamil)
PRESS RELEASE
30.12.2008
On 30.12.2008 in Gudalur, at a mass rally and public meeting with between 60-70 000 participants held in condemnation of the illegal tiger reserve scheme in Mudumalai and the illegal actions of the Forest Department, the following resolutions were passed and are hereby being sent to the Central and State governments.
About 4 lakh adivasis, small farmers, estate workers and people of many other communities live in the Gudalur area. They have built residences on the cultivated lands in their possession, and are living on their income from agriculture on these lands. These lands, which once belonged to the descendants of the Nilambur Kovilagam in Kerala, were taken over by the Tamil Nadu government in 1969 through the zamindari abolition law (Gudalur Janmam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1969 – Act 24/69).
The large estates cultivating this land on lease challenged this Act in court. The case continued in the Supreme Court for 28 years before it was dismissed on August 18th, 1999 (CA No. 8367 – 75 of 1977). The Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to settle the land problem on these lands within a specified time. But till date the Tamil Nadu government did not take any decision on this matter. The people who live on the cultivated lands taken over by the government lost the rights they had had. In particular, they are denied all basic facilities like electricity connections, registration of their lands, the right to construct houses, drinking water, educational facilities, hospitals, roads, etc., and as a result today have become impoverished and destitute people. Government agencies claim that these development works are illegal.
For more than forty years, the Forest Department has been inflicting illegal harassment on the people of the area. Destruction of cultivated crops without warning, demolition of houses, looting of property and goods, extortion of money through threats, arresting and jailing people on false charges and similar atrocities have been continuously perpetrated by the Forest Department. For many years the people of this area organized many protests against these actions by the Forest Department. Martyrs have given up their lives in protest, unable to stand the atrocities of the Department.
For the past forty years, the people have demanded pattas for their lands; this has yet to be accepted. In this situation, the Forest Department has sought to take away their remaining livelihood resources by illegally notifying a ‘Critical Tiger Habitat’ through GO Ms 145. Similarly, the Department is making more and more efforts to seize even patta lands in the name of an “Elephant Corridor.”
A situation has now come about where people's livelihood rights are threatened in the name of supposedly protecting the tiger, in violation of the “Wild Life (Protection) Amendment 2006” and the “Forest Rights Recognition Act 2006.”
Researchers proved that, despite spending many crores on Project Tiger, the scheme had failed to achieve its intended goals in terms of tiger conservation. The Central government therefore amended the 1972 Wild Life (Protection) Act through the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment 2006. As per sections 38V(4) and 38V(5)(ii) of this law, henceforth the declaration of “critical tiger habitats” requires the consent of the village people of that area expressed through a gram sabha resolution. Further, they should be decided on a scientific basis through a case by case examination and a process of public consultation. The notification of the critical tiger habitat can take place only after this is complete. Without complying with these procedures and the requirements of law, the Forest Department is illegally violating people's human rights and trying to take away their livelihoods. In this situation, the Forest Department's claims to have complied with the law by taking the consent of some gram sabhas – without informing them of the situation – is laughable.
The area within a five kilometer radius around the boundaries of the illegal Critical Tiger Habitat is to be declared a buffer zone. The lands of 67 villages in nine panchayats and town panchayats, including the cultivated lands and patta lands of thousands of farmers, are thereby being included in the Tiger Reserve. Moreover, many villages lie within the Critical Tiger Habitat itself; these villages will have to be relocated. Further, more than 30 secondary and higher secondary schools, four hydroelectric projects, many tea factories and tea estates, and many temples have thus been illegally included in the boundaries of the Tiger Reserve.
Similarly, the Forest Department has announced that, in order ostensibly to recover an elephant corridor, both patta lands and all other lands will be taken over by the Department and the buildings on those lands demolished. The news that the survey work for this has begun in Masinagudi and many other areas in the district has hit the people living in this area like a thunderbolt. There was no scientific verification of whether or not the targeted areas actually are an elephant corridor.
After living under Forest Department atrocities for forty years, the people of the area are now living in fear that their livelihoods will be further imperiled by the illegal tiger reserve, the elephant corridor and similar projects. As a result, in the panchayats of Masinagudi, Srimadurai, Thorappalli, Gudalur Nellakottai and Devarsholai, thousands of people have joined mass rallies, public meetings, general strikes and shutdowns in protest. In this situation, all political parties and people's organisations have joined hands under the banner of the Makkal Vazhvurimai Padukappu Iyakkam and called for a rally of one lakh people, a public meeting, a shutdown of all shops and a general strike in the town of Gudalur. This protest demands an end to the illegal actions of the Forest Department and the withdrawal of GO 145. Further it calls upon the government to withdraw the Tiger Reserve and to fully implement the Forest Rights Recognition Act 2006 passed by Parliament. Further it demands that action be taken against the forest officials who have blocked development works. Criminal cases should be filed against these officials under section 7 of the Forest Rights Recognition Act 2006. Pattas should immediately be granted for the lands in Gudalur, Pandalur and Ooty talukas that have been under cultivation for decades.
This rally and public meeting of between 60-70,000 people was joined by Shri R. Prabhu, the Member of Parliament from the Nilgiris, Thiru K. Gopal, Member of the Legislative Assembly from Ooty and former Minister Thiru A. Millar.
Through this rally and public meeting, the following demands are hereby being passed as resolutions for immediate action by the authorities and are being sent to the Central and State governments.
1. The notification of the Critical Tiger Habitat through G.O. Ms 145 was illegally done without the consent of the gram sabhas, without any public consultation and in the absence of any scientific investigation. It was therefore in violation of section 38V(5)(ii) and section 38(V)(4) of the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment, 2006. This has produced a situation where the rights of adivasis and forest dwellers will be violated. Hence we demand that the Tamil Nadu government withdraw GO Ms 145 and desist from declaring this area a Tiger Reserve.
2. The Forest Rights Recognition Act of 2006, which recognises the livelihood rights of the people and protects their traditional rights, should be immediately implemented. Under this Act, the people of the area have the right to use and protect all common and community resources. In keeping with this, the Elephant Corridor, which is being declared with no scientific basis or legal procedure, should be withdrawn. Moreover, action should be taken under section 7 of the Forest Rights Recognition Act against the Forest Department officials who have violated this law. The illegal destruction of forest in connivance with the Forest Department must be immediately stopped and action taken against the responsible forest officials.
3. People living in panchayats, town panchayats and townships in the area have been illegally deprived of basic facilities like drinking water, electricity, housing, roads, schools etc. by the Forest Department, which has misused the name of the Supreme Court to this end. The lack of these basic facilities has caused great hardship to the people of this area. Therefore, the illegal restrictions placed by the Forest Department should be withdrawn and basic facilities provided to the people. Action should be taken by the government against the forest officials responsible for the illegal restrictions on providing basic facilities to the people.
4. As per the Forest Rights Recognition Act 2006, the government should recognise that any project related to the forests of the community must be implemented by the local gram sabha and village and further that the people now have the power and the right to protect and conserve the forests.
5. Small farmers have been cultivating the lands under their possession for decades and all such farmers should now immediately be granted pattas for their lands. The Tamil Nadu government should issue the necessary orders for this to be done.
All the political parties, people's organisations and panchayat presidents gathered under the banner of the Makkal Vazhvurimai Padukappu Iyakkam call upon the authorities in Gudalur to ensure that the Tamil Nadu government recognises the above demands and immediately take necessary actions required to address them.
Yours truly,
All political parties, people's organisations and panchayat presidents as undersigned
1. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
2. Indian National Congress
3. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)
4. Communist Party of India (Marxist)
5. Indian Union Muslim League
6. Communist Party of India
7. Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK)
8. Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK)
9. Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK)
10. Dalit Panthers
11. Vivasayigal Thozhilargal Munnetra Sangham
12. Traders Union
13. Vehicle Drivers' Union
14. Mudumalai Pazhangudiyanar Nala Sangam (Mudumalai Adivasis Welfare Association)
15. Panchayat presidents:
1. District panchayat (zilla parishad) president
2. District panchayat (zilla parishad) vice-president
3. Taluka panchayat (panchayat samiti) president
4. Township presidents
5. Town panchayat presidents
6. Panchayat presidents