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Journalism of Courage
DHUNDUNIYA VILLAGE (DANG), MARCH 30: Despite a High Court injunction against the eviction of tribals from forest land which they have been cultivating before 1980, the Forest Department has evicted 726 tribals in Dang. Forest officials claim most of the tribals had started cultivating reserved forest land since 1992 and hence had to be evicted.
However, the stay order clearly disallows eviction of those cultivating forest land prior to 1980 whether reserved or protected. The injunction came a year after the Central Government announced a new GR, promising to give title to all tribals before 1980, provided they could produce fine receipts as evidence.
However, most tribals do not possess the fine receipts simply because the Forest Department did not issue any. In most cases they were given permission to cultivate in exchange for liguor, chicken and cash bribes. While senior forest officials admit that bribes are accepted, they assert that the tribals are equally guilty.
But as Shiv Ram, an LLB studentfrom Dang says, “Most tribals here are illiterate; they do not understand the importance of fine receipts and thus never insisted on one. But even those who produced the fine receipts were not given the same area of land they had under cultivation.”
He refers to Savarkhadi village 45 km north of the district capital, Ahwa probably the only village where the tribals possessed fine receipts. Despite the documentary proof, they were given one acre of land though they previously cultivated up to five acres.
In view of the difficulty in producing the receipts, the tribals suggested that the villager elders’ opinion be sought and soil testing carried out to establish the size of land and period of cultivation.
The conflict between the tribals and forest department came into sharp focus with the declaration of reserved and protected forests. Till 1990, over 300 families were been cultivating 3660 acres of forests land from which they have now been evicted. Suddenly, tribals for whom forestry is a way oflife found themselves losing their traditional rights, living at the mercy of forest officials.
Gulabbhai Pawar, Saman Jiva Pawar and Kamanbhai Pawar of Dhunduniya village have been cultivating land for more 25 years but did not escape eviction. The three brothers were beaten up and frequently jailed.
Recently, when Khatal Gulabhai, a Janata Dal MLA candidate, was busy campaigning, about 15 forest guards reached the village and destroyed his cereal crop, a villager told The Indian Express.
Deputy conservator of forests Ram Kumar however denied that forest officials harassed the cultivators.
“We only reclaimed the forest land with the help of villagers without the use of force. They (tribals) had to be evicted as they had encroached on reserve forest land”, he claimed.
In 1993, a group of tribals moved a petition in the High Court against the eviction. Three years later, when the forest department moved the court seeking vacation of the stay order, the order modified the earlier directives, askingall affected tribals to file individual affidavits giving certain relevant information.
The High Court stay order, claims the deputy conservator, “does not exist” after the Supreme Court order which says “no forest land can be given for non forest use”. Shiv Ram, however, points out that forest officials are misleading tribals as the Supreme Court ruling is about a different case and not applicable to the Dang tribals.
Dang, Gujarat’s most backward district is located in the state’s rich forest area in the south. Ironically, 30,000 out of the 36,000 families in Dang live below the poverty line. With cultivation now banned, 60 per cent of the 1.43 lakh-strong population has no option but to migrate to Surat, zilla panchayat president Jayaben Patel said.
