Naxal antidote: Land for 1 cr forest settlers

It took the Prime Minister’s intervention to resolve the year-old tussle between the environment and Tribal Affairs ministries. On January 16, he called the squabbling ministries and gave green signal for the Bill. Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs is to draft the legislation.

The proposed Bill, tentatively called the Scheduled Tribes and Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forests Rights) Bill, would cover the entire country and the prime beneficiaries would be the tribal population in southern Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, northern Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa. ‘‘It would bring about a quiet revolution in the Vindhyas and leave no justification for the insurgents to exploit the tribals anger against the Government,’’ a senior Ministry official claimed.

The Bill would impact the lives of the tribals in many ways. First, it would rid them of the terror of forest officials and police, and end all apprehensions of their eviction. Second, it would entitle them to all basic amenities like water, electricity, and pucca houses.

‘‘The tribals were treated badly on the pretext that forests were more important, and to add to it, the tribals were asked to prove their claims on the land,’’ a senior bureaucrat pointed this out in the meeting with the PM. ‘‘While there is a law to protect wild animals there was no such law for the one crore people who had always believed they were living on their own land,’’ he added.

The Bill, according to officials, would also seek to end another dispute between the dwellers and the forest department. It would identify all the minor forest produce (MFP) which the forest people are entitled to make use of. At present some state governments don’t allow the forest-dwellers to treat products such as bamboo and tendu leaves as MFP.

The ministry said the Bill would also ‘‘do fine balancing between helping populations and conserving forests’’.