As two ST seats head to polls, tribals say fight for ‘jangal’ on

Koraput: The forests of Maoist-affected Ramagiri are part of the Dandakaranya – India’s forested heart – and located on the border of Koraput and Chhattisgarh’s Bastar districts. Scattered villages come into view on entering the jungle through a dirt track, off Ramagiri Chowk where a memorial to two fallen BSF jawans of the 143rd battalion stands tall. Occupied mostly by tribal and some SC/OBC communities, these villages are among thousands facing a crisis long in the making, but that has erupted just ahead of the elections.
Several residents’ claim to forest land and use of forest produce under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, has been rejected. The Supreme Court’s February 13 order seeking their eviction has left them with a sense of helplessness. Though the apex court issued a stay on its order, locals say their fight for ‘jal, jangal and zameen’ will continue.

“Some have got pattas under FRA but the land has not been demarcated. Others, especially non-tribal other traditional forest dwellers or OTFDs, have had their claims rejected. Still more don’t know the status of their application,” said Malati Nayak, former two-time sarpanch of Ramagiri gram panchayat, under Boipariguda block. Most villagers here cultivate paddy, ragi and maize. Many of them have settled here after being displaced by the Upper Kolab Multipurpose Project in the Eighties. Their neatly built mud houses, with scrawny chickens running in the yard, can’t hide acute poverty.

“Our greatest terror is the forest department. Officials burn our houses, destroy our crops and plant trees on our fields,” Malati, a resident of Khairpadar, added. “We tribals don’t understand how to negotiate land. We are so many in number but no one cares about us. It is worse for the forest-dwelling OBCs and SCs,” said Asumati Khora, a resident of neighbouring Majhiguda, adding, “But this time, we are trying to make people, especially women, aware of what they are facing. We are in talks with like-minded groups in Chhattisgarh also. Where will the adivasis go?”

Ramagiri is part of southern Odisha’s Nabarangpur (ST) Lok Sabha seat and Kotpad assembly constituency, which vote on April 11, along with another ST-reserved seat, Koraput. Five of Odisha’s 21 Lok Sabha seats and 33 of 147 assembly seats are reserved for tribals. They number almost 95 lakh (23 per cent) in a state with a population of four crore; the second highest in the country after Madhya Pradesh.

The state government has received 5,73,867 claims from tribals and 31,687 by OTFDs under FRA. Of these, 1,22,250 claims of STs and 26,620 of OTFDs have been rejected. The highest number of rejections has been recorded by Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram’s constituency of Sundargarh.

“The OTFDs have been asked to show documents dating back 75 years. We are poor people, we have nothing with us. How will we bring such documents?” asked Asumati.

A survey by NGO network Community Forest Rights-Learning and Advocacy (CFR-LA) shows that the tussle over FRA implementation may have an impact on 133 of 517 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014, BJP won 79 of the 133 constituencies. Congress won five and finished second in 83, while other parties won 49. In 68 of the seats, the two parties were in a direct fight, it adds. Drawing on census and Election Commission data, the survey shows that in 95 per cent of these tribal-dominated seats, the number of people eligible for rights under FRA was higher than the average victory margin in those constituencies in 2014.

“We are only talking about the claims rejected under FRA. In reality, even though Odisha has done well in handing out titles, land demarcation has not happened. In many cases, a tribal has received patta for only a small portion of the land he has been cultivating,” explained Giri Rao, a member of CFR-LA.

Sada Golari is one such person who is still searching for his patch of land among the trees. “I have received a patta but I don’t know where the land is,” shrugged the resident of Majhiguda.

Interestingly, a CAG performance audit report on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas for 2015-2016 says, “Though Centre had emphasized effective implementation of FRA in LWE-hit areas, the implementation of the same in the state was inefficient… Even after distribution of titles, revenue records were not corrected. Titles were not distributed after finalisation.”

Almost no one in Ramagiri has seen or read the Congress manifesto that promises full implementation of FRA but like the rustling of leaves, whispered questions about what lies next can be heard here and in the other forests of mineral-rich Odisha. The state has 58.14 lakh hectare of forests, 37.34 per cent of its total area.

EoM