The state of Madhya Pradesh is known for its physical and natural diversity.  Because of the number of experiments that have been tried out in this State for testing processes of development and social change, it has also been called a Laboratory for Development.  The disputes related to revenue and forest land of the State are now resurfacing with new dimensions, and it is a matter of regret that instead of moving towards a solution, the disputes seem to be caught in never ending twists and turns. Being a disputed matter, it cannot even be ignored. The issue of forest generates a triangular conflict between power, money and community strength.  History has been witness that civilizations are born and develop only close to natural resources, particularly rivers and forests.  The balance in nature is maintained by protecting these very resources.  However, in the present scenario, the definition of development being followed by the State is only creating new problems of ever increasing social inequality. Therefore it becomes a matter of prime importance to make concerted and wide-ranging efforts to find a solution to this problem having direct relevance to forests.

About Madhya Pradesh

In Madhya Pradesh, as in other parts of the country too, the issue of forests and respective rights over it remains a complicated question.  It is ‘complicated’ in the sense, that forests were not always under the solitary control and authority of the State or the respective government.  During British times, in the wake of industrialization, wood was needed for building ships and laying out railway lines.  To meet this requirement, the British started logging operations (cutting forests), where they faced issues of autonomy of tribal groups and rural communities living in forest areas.  Thereafter, to accelerate the development process, particularly economic development, a variety of critical resources were required such as precious metals, valuable chemicals, necessary vegetation, wood and minerals. These could be extracted mainly from forests, and thus a process of taking political control over forests was adopted.

In fact, there may be no harm in placing regulations over the vast natural resources of our nation. However, when such regulations benefit a particular section of society over others, then this creates a situation of internal dissensions and discontent.  

As per Census of 2001, the total population of Madhya Pradesh is 6.03 crores, out of which 73.33% is rural population. 19% of population is that of Adivasi community, who are traditionally dependent upon forests. Not only Adivasis, but also about 18% of other rural population is dependent upon forest resources for their livelihood. Thus, when we talk about some dispute over the forest resources, we are talking about the resources of livelihood for two crores of people, who are dependent upon them for their very survival.  This in itself underlines the importance of this issue.

The total animal husbandry of Madhya Pradesh is 3.49 crores, most of which includes cows, buffalos, goats, bullocks and sheep. While analyzing in terms of proportion, it reveals that out of 52,739 villages, 22,600 of them (42.85%) are either inside the forest areas or in areas bordering forests.  The Forest Department of Government of Madhya Pradesh believes that because these communities – almost one third of the State population, living in far-flung, rather inaccessible areas and thus being away from the mainstream of developmental process, as such, are dependent upon forest resources for meeting their livelihood needs.      

Forest wealth of the State

It is a question of prime importance whether the forest wealth is considered to be the property of Government or that of the community who is living there and dependent upon it?  Traditionally, the society used to provide protection as well as use the forest produce for them.  In the year 1862, during the British rule – just after five years of first freedom fight, the Forest Department was established, with the sole objective to grab the proprietary rights over the forests through this Department for strengthening their colonial rule. The Government of Madhya Pradesh, through its one-page gazette notification dated 10th July 1958, had declared and acquired 94 lakh hectares of community land (forest area) as belonging to Forest Department. However, no prior analysis was made as to how many Adivasis or other rural people are living on the parts of that so acquired 94 lakhs hectare of land.  Since the Adivasis and other villagers had no documentary evidence to prove their proprietary rights over the land on which they are living for generations, therefore, their occupation over such land was being treated as illegal. Earlier, in the pre-independence period, every village had its register in which it was clearly specified as to how much land belongs to village and its respective utilization by the respective inhabitants of the village.  That was the legally accepted documentary evidence of proprietary rights of respective villagers over their portion of land.  This document was known as ‘Bazibul-Arz’.  Even today, this document is available in the Government archives and can be inspected for verification purposes. But who cares. As such, by resorting to official acquisition of such land, was just the beginning of legal exploitation of Adivasi community.

Forests area in Madhya Pradesh

As per data published in 2001 (State of Forest Report 2001 – FSI), there is 95,221 sq. kilometers of area comes under the control and supervision of Forest Department of Madhya Pradesh.  While in fact, only an area of 77,265 sq. kilometers has been notified as forest area.  Meaning thereby that remaining 17,956 sq. kilometers (95221 – 77265) is not a forest area, but still it is under the control of Forest Department.  Even out of these 77,265 sq. kilometers, so notified as forest area, only 44,384 sq. kilometers is covered with dense forests.  At present, area-wise Madhya Pradesh is number one State in the country, having 76,429 sq. kilometers of its forest area.  Next comes Andhra Pradesh with 68,019 sq. kilometers and third is Chhatisgarh with 55,998 sq. kilometers of forest area.

Year-wise status of actual forest area:

Forest wealth in Madhya Pradesh: The Forest Department of Government of Madhya Pradesh had assessed the quantity of timber and wood available in forests, as 500 lakh cubic meters, valuing at Rs. 2, 50,000 crores.  In addition, the estimated official value of other forest produce is Rs. 1,000 crores per year. Further, the illegal trading of various forest products is estimated at Rs. 7,500 crores per year, and this very illegal trading is the single biggest cause of problem.   The annual revenue receipts of Government of Madhya Pradesh from its Forest Department are to the tune of about Rs. 300 crores.  Year-wise details of revenue receipts from Forest Department, during last five years are as under:

Thus the people of vested interests, in connivance with concerned authorities, which includes industrialists, contractors, politicians and bureaucrats, are doing the maximum exploitation of forest wealth.

Issue of Right to Shelter

As already stated, 22,600 villages of Madhya Pradesh are either located inside the forest areas or in areas bordering forests. The tussle for the rights of Adivasis is mainly centered around that they should continued to be allowed to live in forests and use its resources for their livelihood.  First of all, a policy decision was taken in the year 1990 in this direction.  In fact, the Government treats such Adivasis as encroachers.  However, with a view to regularize them, it was decided that only those Adivasis who were living in forests prior to 31st December, 1976, shall be treated as ‘entitled encroachers’ and will be allowed to live in forests.  But those living in forests after this date shall not be treated as ‘entitled encroachers’ and have to be moved out of forest areas.  Thus, the process of moving out Adivasis from forest areas started.  

In face of widespread agitation and all round pressure, it was realized that almost 70% of Adivasis, after their marriage, move out to other villages along with their new families and as such, in terms of aforesaid policy, shall remain deprived of their rights to live in forests. Consequently, the time limit for ‘entitled encroachers’ was increased from 31th December 1976 to 24th October 1980, although even this increased time limit, from today’s point of view, is also not enough to protect all Adivasis.
In response to a question in Rajya Sabha, the Government of India, on 24th October, 2004 replied that 3.66 lakh hectares of land was allotted to families living in forests since 24th October, 1980, out of which 2.75 hectares was allotted in Madhya Pradesh alone. However, according to Government of Madhya Pradesh, only 1, 11,671 families were treated as ‘entitled families’ who were allotted 1.439 lakh hectares of land.   Clearly, the Adivasi community is suffering because of contradictory jargon of statistical data.

Problem of forest villages

As on date, there are 925 forest villages in 28 districts of Madhya Pradesh, out of which 98 such villages are considered to be uninhabited, displaced and parts of sanctuaries and National parks. Except these 98 villages, the in-principal concurrence was given by the Government of India to convert 310 villages out of 827, into revenue villages.  For converting the remaining 517 villages (827 – 310), the Government of Madhya Pradesh had submitted fresh proposals in January-February, 2004. 
However, the Hon’ble Supreme Court, vide its order dated 23rd February, 2004, in the matter of groups who, in the name of environment protection, use the forests for their commercial purposes, had put on stay the permission so granted by the Government of India for converting the villages into revenue villages. Still, about 1100 villages are tied between Forest and Revenue Departments and consequently the development of Adivasi community is being adversely affected.

Social Forestry in Madhya Pradesh

With a view to supplement and compensate for the shrinking area of forests, the idea of social forestry was introduced and promoted to overcome the problem created by de-forestation. On the face of it, the idea was introduced with ideal objectives, but experience reveals that it is creating internal dissentions amongst the community itself.  During the Five Year Plan period between 1978 and 1983, it was an accepted phenomenon that along with providing protection to forests, the demand of market has also to be met together with the developmental needs of community living under poverty conditions. As such, the objective was to improve the economic conditions of communities living in forest area, while maintaining the policy production-oriented activities of forestation, farming and social forestation.  It was decided that forestation be promoted to meet the demands of raw material for forest based industries with special emphasis on fast growing trees.  The policy adopted for social forestry was to improve the forests, usage of fallow land, and plantation on either side of the road, forestation on community and river lands. It was a participatory effort under which social forest committees were formed.  However, further analysis of the scheme reveals that instead of meeting the developmental needs of forests and rural people, the primary objective of the scheme was to meet the requirement of market and industries.  Consequently, the food production was reduced and to derive cash benefits, water-soaking trees like Nilgiri were planted in large quantities.  The earlier found diversity of forests started diminishing and also monoculture has adversely affected the productivity of the fertile land. Not only this, because of this very reason, the opportunities for labour work were also reduced.

With a view to extract maximum profitability, the Government has always considered and treated the forests as a source of economy.  Consequent upon social forestry, the era of Joint Management took place. For effecting joint management, a Committee, out of members of village community itself, shall formed and such a Committee shall be responsible for protection, expansion and monitoring the forest areas.  In return, the said Joint Management Committee shall be entitled to receive 40% out of forest income.
In Madhya Pradesh, 14,173 Joint Forest Management Committees were operating in the year 2005 for 59.46 lakh hectares of forest area. However, as against this, six years ago, in the year 1999, almost 50% of such Joint Forest Committees functioning all over India, were in Madhya Pradesh alone and were looking after over 100 lakh hectares of forest area.

The in-principal objective of Joint Forest Management system, may be a matter of debate, but in practice it has created an atmosphere of internal dissents within the community itself. Under this system, Forest Village Committee or Forest Protection Committee was formed and for maintaining the safety of forests under their control, these committees were empowered with penal rights to punish the culprits who were found violating the forest rules, which includes either imposing themselves the economic or other punishment or to recommend for such punishment so decided by the Committee. But most of the time, such violators were members of their own village community.  Presently, even the entry into the forests who are within the densely populated tribal districts of Madhya Pradesh, has been prohibited. Generally, people used to visit forests either to fetch wood or to ease themselves and also for crossing over to other places.  However, with the prevailing restrictions over entry into forests, the moment these people cross into the boundary of forest (which is also not very clearly demarcated), the Forest Security Guards or members of Forest Protection Committee, catch hold of them and impose penalty.  The problem is that boundary limits of villages and forests are adjacent to each other i.e. immediately after the village limit, the forest area begins and the activities like grazing of animals etc. are possible only outside the village limits.  Not only this, to tighten the noose further, for protecting the forests from human beings, the Forest Department started employing Ex-Army personnel who are not only provided with arms and vehicles, but have also been empowered with rights to punish the Adivasi villagers found within the restricted forest area.

Practical Aspects of New Policies

Presently, the total forests of India are spread over an area of 6,78,333 sq. kilometers, which is equivalent to 20.63% of total geographical area of the country.  Out of this, the dense forests cover an area of 3,90,564 sq. kilometers – 11.88%.  The policy objective of the Government is to increase the forest area up to 33% of total geographical area of the country.  For achieving this policy objective, the Government is converting the community forests and its resources into protected forests and that of already protected forests, into National Parks, so that such areas could legally become inaccessible to human beings.  This is being done under an imported belief that Adivasis not only are responsible for damaging the forests, but also put them to harm.  Such an opinion of the Government is constantly perpetuated and abated by vested interests of Industrial sector as well as animal-greedy so called intellectuals. Although in the year 1990, to solve the dispute of forest land between Adivasi community and respective State Governments, the Central Government had decided to regularize such land, but the Forest & Environment Ministry of Union Government issued directions on 3rd May, 2002, to the effect that all illegal occupations over forest land belonging to respective State Governments and Union Territories, to be vacated before 30th September, 2002.

In the aforesaid given scenario, the Government of India, finally started realizing the fact that in the whole process, the real interests of Adivasi community have been ignored.  On 21st July, 2004, the Union Ministry of Forest & Environment, admitted in an affidavit filed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, during the hearing of a famous case – “Godaverman Vs Union of India”, that in the past, injustice of historical magnitude has been meted out to the Adivasi community in terms of forest land under their occupation. The reason for such injustice, as put forward by the Government, was that at the relevant time, the required documents of respective proprietary rights were not available and, therefore, during the British rule, even after the delimitation of forest areas, the respective rights of Adivasi community could not be established.

Now, there is a ray of hope that with the enactment of “Adivasi (Recognition of Forestry Rights) Act, 2005, the Adivasi community shall be able to get its legal rights over the forest land for their residence and also as a source of their livelihood.  As per the provisions contained in this Law, the Adivasi living in forest areas up to December 2005, shall be entitled for such rights.

Some Important Definitions

1. Reserved Forests: An area, which has been notified as “Reserved Forest” area under the Indian Forest Act. In the entire area of such reserved forests, all types of activities are prohibited and nothing can be done there without the specific permission for the purpose.
2. Protected Forests: Such area, which has been notified as ‘partially protected’ under the Indian Forest Act.  In such areas, unless and until any activity is specifically prohibited, all other work and activities can be performed.
3. Unclassified Forests: An area, which is, although notified as forest area, but is neither categorized as reserved forests nor protected forest, is called an “Unclassified Forest” area.
4. Joint Management of Forests: The joint efforts done by Forest Department as well as by the community to manage the forest resources, are called Joint Management of Forests. Under this arrangement, the community receives a share out of forest income, in proportion to its participation in the Management.
5. Forest Villages: Such villages and group of its community who are located and living in reserved and/or protected forest areas to work there as labourers for meeting the demands of such forests in terms of required labour work.
6. National Parks: An area directly under the control and supervision of Government, so developed as National Park to maintain natural beauty and to protect precious items of historical importance.  The objective of such National Parks is to protect the forest animals and various species of trees and plants for present and coming generations, so that such animals and plants can flourish and develop under natural environment.
7. Sanctuaries: A forest area where capturing and hunting of animals is prohibited by an order of so authorized officer.

Sachin Kumar Jain