The Adivasis in Adilabad Lok Sabha constituency, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, are complaining about the shrinking size of ippa or mahua flowers (Madhuca indica) which, in effect, impacts their supplementary income through the sale of the flowers. They attribute it to the changes in climate with regard to rainfall, but fail to recognise that the shrunken forests all around them could also be a major reason for the phenomenon.
The leadership of the tribal people in this constituency, which has an estimated 30% ethnic tribe electors of the nearly 15 lakh electorate, never misses an opportunity to raise the Jal, jangal, jameen slogan demanding protection of these natural resources. During elections however, instead of raising concern over the fast-dwindling ecology and biodiversity, the leaders promise to ‘consider’ positively the demand of the Adivasis for rights on encroached land in the forests.
The current Lok Sabha elections is no different as candidates of all the major parties are promising support to the demand of the tribal people, which would give way for more felling of trees in the forests. The first time when the political parties extended their support to this demand in 2005, a huge extent of forest was razed by people, mostly non-tribals.
Inhabited villages
The severity of the problem can be assessed from the findings of a study ‘Promise and Performance of Forest Rights Recognition Act, 2006: Tenth Anniversary Report’ by Palla Trinadha Rao in 2016. It shows that the number of inhabited villages with forest in the former united Adilabad district, a major part of which is Adilabad (ST) Parliamentary constituency, is 792.
These villages encompass as much as 4.34 lakh hectares of forest area, of a total of seven lakh hectares. A random visit would expose that much of this forest extent if extinct now.
These villages have a population of 10 lakh, of which the tribals are only 3.12 lakh and their population has not changed greatly over the last few decades. The rest of the population belongs to Scheduled Castes and other non-tribals, whose population has seen a faster upward trend. The issue needs a closer look to establish the genuine claims, which are actually from those applicants who have failed to get the rights on the forest land that they till under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA). A proper study of the issue, including the tribal and non-tribal population dynamics in the forest and Agency areas and its impact on the forest, would help to control similar situations from arising in future.