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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Tribals have lost their farmlands over the century -KD Singh

Tribals have lost their farmlands over the century -KD Singh

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published Published on May 30, 2012   modified Modified on May 30, 2012

The marginalisation of tribals in the last few decades has been enormous. Tribals have lost out in agriculture, and their forests also stand depleted, writes KD Singh

In 2006, the Prime Minister described the Maoist threat as “the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by the country” and suggested development in insurgency-affected regions as the key remedy. In 2009, the Union Government announced a new nationwide initiative, the ‘Integrated Action Plan’, for broad and coordinated operations aimed at solving the Maoist problem in all affected States. Importantly, this plan includes funding of grassroots economic development projects as well as enhanced police patrolling to contain Maoist violence.

On their part, the Maoists claim “to support the cause of the poorest rural populations, especially adivasis. They frequently target the tribals, the police and the Government workers in what they say is a fight for improved land rights and more jobs for neglected agricultural labourers and the poor. Still, from these statements alone, it is difficult to find out what exactly is going on.

The Maoist problem is found mainly in the forested and tribal regions of the country. According to the Forest Survey of India report released in 2011, the forest covered area in the Scheduled Tribe districts was 40 million hectares, and according to the Census report of 2011, the ST population in these districts was close to 60 million. A 100 years ago, the forest area in this region was estimated at 60 million ha and the population at about 15 million. Simple arithmetic shows that the per capita area available for hunting and gathering has been reduced to almost 1/6th of what was available a century back.

Also, the quality of forests has significantly declined over time. Today, dense forests form only 15 per cent of the total forest cover. The situation is worse here because the land has low-carrying capacity and is prone to rapid and more frequent degradation.

The British Governor General of India between 1786 and 1793, Lord Cornwallis, pioneered the land settlement and revenue collection system in the country to boost the Government’s revenue. The ensuing 100 years “saw the beginning of extensive deforestation in the sub-continent” to bring more land under agriculture. According to British historian John Keay, the ‘Axe Britannica’ bears as much responsibility as the ‘Tax Britannica’ for the “desolated condition of the rural and tribal economy of India”. This period is also associated with an increasing incidence of droughts, famines and deaths in the country.

Eventually, “unregulated forest destruction” caught the attention of policy makers in England, and finally, efforts were made to stop the wanton destruction of forest resources. This was a watershed moment in the history of Indian forest conservation which ultimately led to the establishment of the forest department in the country.

However, land transfers for agriculture (and land revenue collection) continued unabated, as the British needed the additional revenue. Between 1880 and 1945, large tracts of forests, even reserved forests, were taken away from the forest department and transferred to the revenue department. Consequently, after 90 years of forest administration, ‘reserved forests’ in the country stood at only 19 million ha while the net cultivated area was 120 million ha. Clearly, the history of injustice being meted out to the STs really had its roots in the British era with the dispossession of their agricultural land. The transition from colonial to democratic rule also did not help matters as this change was accompanied by a rushed merger of princely States with the Indian Union that prompted large scale forest encroachments across the country.

Evidently, de novo thinking is required to address the question of tribal development. The author, in the course of 15 years of research work in tribal regions, has observed an almost complete lack of governance and a growing sense of despondency and uncertainty. In this regard, the rise of Maoists is not surprising. It is in the national interest to provide STs an appropriate environment for rapid socio-economic and cultural development as well as a living space where they feel dignified. Also, they must have access to education, healthcare and other basic, modern-day amenities.

The Integrated Watershed Management (with a target of 45 million ha of land area in hills and mountains) is supposed to include all deforested lands with emphasis on soil and water conservation. The strategy will be to mix annual and perennial crops to provide a reliable source of income and livelihood to poor and protect watersheds too. Forest development should include the entire value chain covering primary area production (in the forests and / or farms), secondary area production (harvesting and transport to a consumption point) and tertiary area production (manufacturing and end use). Presently, the primary and secondary area productions are unorganised, hidden and unsustainable to the detriment of forest and the people. By integrating the three phases of the production, we expect to improve the health of the forests, the local economy and the sub-sector contribution to national GDP.

Protected areas presently cover around 15 million ha of forests. There is an emerging consensus that, if forest conservation is to succeed, conservation efforts need to go beyond protected areas and cover all forests.  Even the most ambitious exponents of biodiversity protection only hope to achieve the allocation of around 10 per cent of the geographic area of the country under parks and reserves.

Finally, knowledge has to be developed on an accelerated scale for sustainable land use, optimal methods of harvesting and methods to augment natural/artificial regeneration. There are excellent examples from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and some other States which are dominated by the tribal population, where the forest departments have done pioneering work for the livelihood of the Scheduled Tribes living there.

The Daily Pioneer, 30 May, 2012, http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/51704-tribals-have-lost-their-farmlands-over-the-century.html


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