India’s forest areas are fast becoming the most violent frontier of conflicts after militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states. Going by an estimate of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), every year about half a million crimes is reported in India’s forest areas. In the last two years about 150 people have been killed in conflicts involving the local tribals and the forest department and the police. Extreme leftist groups have made forests their reason for existence.

Conflicts in forest always revolve around the question who owns the forest? In India, the forest department is the legal owner of forests while the tribal forest dwellers claim traditional ownership over it. There are 500 million people in India who depend on forests for survival, but Indian forest laws, mostly framed by Britishers in early nineteenth century, restrict people from sourcing their livelihood.

Immediate future tense

In future, forest-related conflicts will become more intense because of the recent drives by the MoEF to evict traditional settlers in forests, placing the tribals in direct confrontation with the forest department. The drive would displace some 10 million people from about 1.2 million hectares of forestlands depriving them of their sole livelihood source. It started in May 2002 after a Supreme Court ruling on clearance of encroachments from forestlands.

At least 10 cases of armed conflict between police and tribal residents have been reported in the last six months. In Kerala, police killed two tribal youth while evicting them from a sanctuary in February. A fortnight before this incident, a tribal youth was killed in Chattisgarh’s Kawardha district while opposing eviction. In Orissa’s Malkangiri district, more than 40 people have been killed in the last two years as tribals and non-tribals fight each other over forests.

Extreme left Naxalite groups have benefited from this situation, according to an assessment by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) this month. Forest conflicts are easy entry points for leftist groups in new areas. According to a survey by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), about 15 percent of India’s forests are under the control of the Naxalites.

It is not that the government is unaware of these emerging conflicts in forest areas and their linkages to illogical forest laws. In April 2000, the Union Home Ministry in a meeting of Naxalite-affected states debated the possible causes of the spread of Naxalism and found forest laws to be the most convincing reason for conflicts. Naxalite-affected states urged amendment of forest laws to suit people’s needs. “Whenever governance fails the Naxalites step in,” says Anadi Sahu, Member of Parliament representing Naxalite-affected Ganjam district in Orissa and a member of the Home Ministry’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on.

A conservative act

The Forest Conservation Act (FCA) makes forest soulless islands. Under the Act, the State governments have to secure permission from the Union government before using forestland for non-forest uses. Chattisgarh, facing its worst drought, cannot renovate traditional ponds for water conservation inside forests. “However, Naxalites construct talabs in forest areas and gain the confidence of people,” says Ramchandra Singh Deo, finance minister of Chattisgarh.

The Act is so powerful that the Kerala forest department refused to listen to the Chief Minister AK Antony over giving lands to landless tribal families, which resulted in the recent violent conflicts in the State. The MoEF even threatened the State government with punishment under the Forest Conservation Act if ‘encroachment’ continues in forest areas. Finally Antony, fearing arrest, ordered his police to kill those with whom he danced a year ago to show solidarity.

The affected states are demanding amendments to the FCA. About two years ago, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh wrote to the Prime Minister requesting changes in the Act. Amendments to the FCA featured prominently when the Co-ordination Committee of the Union Home Ministry on Naxalites met in April 2000, and again in March 2002. The forest bureaucracy is also adamant in not amending this legislation. The Home Minister LK Advani forwarded these proposals to the MoEF, but the MoEF did not reply to him.

Even the Prime Minister suffers the forest bureaucracy. Last year when the National Commission for SC and STs wrote to the Prime Minister to intervene in the eviction drive, he could not do so. On 18 July 2002, the PM, while setting up the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission, promised a visiting group of tribal rights activists to amend the forest conservation act and make forests accessible to the people. But insiders confirm that the PMO never took up this matter.

Meanwhile, this theatre of conflict continues staging its drama of deaths.