Temporary win for forest dwellers

The Supreme Court has thrown a temporary lifeline to lakhs of Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers by putting a stay on its earlier order to state governments to evict them from forest land. The interim mercy came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s impassioned plea—cloaked under the technical argument that under the Forest Rights Act there was no provision for eviction of tribals or forest-dwellers from their habitat. The FRA instead was envisaged to legitimise the claims of communities living in the forest to that habitat and their right over forest produce. 

Thankfully, the three-member SC bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, while reprimanding the Tribal Affairs Ministry for waking up from “slumber” only after the court passed the eviction order, agreed to a review petition. The next hearing is scheduled on July 10, by which time states will have to furnish modalities of adjudication under which the claims of forest-dwellers were rejected. The justices could not have been blind to the fact that not many of the forest-dwellers may have had requisite documents to prove their claims.

The gram sabhas which were to vouch for their claims often did not do so, or could not fathom what was expected of them.  Worse still, in many cases officials of state-level monitoring committees, whose job was to ensure tribals were not evicted unjustly, did just that without going through due process. Most of those affected, as can be expected, did not quite understand the procedural niceties. 

Emphasising that the rights of traditional forest inhabitants cannot be sacrificed in the name of forest preservation, the S-G cited the Centre’s concern when large-scale eviction orders, particularly in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, came to its notice. Hopefully, the apex court would find a balance where forest preservation does not become inimical to human rights and survival of the most disenfranchised segment of India.