The Forest Rights Act

Government launching triple attack on rights of forest dwellers

Protest actions:

• Dharna on November 3rd and 4th, Jantar Mantar, New Delhi
• Protests in Bhopal, Udaipur,  Raipur and Bhubaneshwar on 3rd - more than 5,000 people join in total, including Delhi
• Protest at Parliament Street, New Delhi on November 4th, 1 pm

The Prime Minister informed State governments at the Tribal Ministry's "review meeting" that "systematic exploitation of tribals must end."  In that case, why is his government intensifying this exploitation?  The mockery of democracy and the rule of law continues.  The government is undertaking three initiatives that seriously threaten the rights of forest dwellers:

• Rushing "Completion" of the Forest Rights Act: The Tribal Ministry is calling a meeting on November 4th, 5th and 6th to “complete implementation” of this law by December 31st – which will mean its death knell. Under the Forest Rights Act, adivasis and forest dwellers have rights to own the lands they are cultivating, use the forest resources they depend on, and protect and manage community forests and wildlife. But the forest bureaucracy has sabotaged the law, preventing recognition of land rights and ensuring that community forest rights are ignored.
• “Forestry” projects and climate change: Thousands of crores are being funnelled into forestry projects by the Central government and foreign donor agencies. In practice “forestry” means plantations, which are usually done without consulting the local communities. The result is that they are often done on people's lands, denying them their grazing areas, cultivated lands and community forests, even as they damage the environment by replacing natural ecosystems with monocultures. The government showcases these projects as a “success” and is seeking even more funding to use them to stop climate change. The proposed climate change bill, to be passed in December, will probably include such projects, giving them a legal mandate. If these projects go ahead, the livelihoods of millions and the ecology of India's forests will be threatened. For more on this, see "The Compensatory Afforestation Scam" under Forest Conservation on the left.
• A new paramilitary “offensive”: In the name of fighting the Maoists, the government is deploying large numbers of troops in forest and adivasi areas. We have already seen the result in Bastar, where paramilitary deployment helped the salwa judum militia destroy more than 644 villages and drive lakhs of people from their homes. If the government truly wants to reach out to adivasis and forest dwellers, why is it not respecting its own laws and people's self-governance and resource rights?

Our Demands

• Implement all provisions of the Forest Rights Act and respect the powers of the gram sabha
  
• Recognise the right and power of the people to protect their forest resources under the Forest Rights Act; terminate the sham scheme of “Joint Forest Management”
  
• All projects in forest areas – development, industrial, forestry, etc. - must be undertaken with the consent of and as per plans prepared by the community
• Halt repression and respect democracy, peace and justice