By Raja Chowdhury
Finland: Friends of the Earth International, World Rainforest Movement, Global
Forest Coalition, GAIA Foundation and tens of other environmental
organisations around the world sent on 22 April an international appeal to
India, its states, Supreme Court and to the UN organs to prevent forced
evictions of millions of India's forest dwellers. Such evictions
would violate India's obligations on human rights and biodiversity.
The Supreme Court has ordered the states of India to evict millions of
forest dwellers after 10 of July 2019 if their claims on their forest
rights are rejected under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The FRA however
does not enact that such rejections can be used as a ground to justify or
to carry out forced eviction. No communities can be legally evicted
without their free informed consent even from the "critical wildlife
habitats" and certainly not from other areas.
In India and also globally, where communities live by the forests with
their customary tenures, bio-diverse forests have survived better than in
areas which state has registered to more commercial use, which displaces
the communities and the biodiversity they sustain as their livelihood
source. In order to save bio-diverse forest and to respect human rights
compliant to its obligations India has thus to protect forest communities
with customary tenures from forced evictions.
The FRA process "shall ensure" that communities' rights to protect and
manage forests as they have traditionally done are duly addressed and
"recognized in all villages with forest dwellers and the titles are
issued" to complete the claims recognition procedure. However, as in
most villages in India's sprawling forests, communities' rights over
forests have not been recorded, "no member of a forest dwelling" tribe or
other traditional community shall be evicted or removed from forest land
under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is
completed".
Because this claim verification has hardly started in many areas and
forest dwellers have not been even informed how they could duly claim many
of their forest rights, the eviction "would amount to penalizing them for
the failure of the state machinery to inform them of their rights".
And as FRA entitles them to claim various forest rights, even if their
claims on particular forest rights get rejected, they still remain
entitled to claim many other rights - including also "any other
traditional right customarily enjoyed". All forest rights as yet
unclaimed provide sufficient grounds to prevent eviction as the due legal
procedure is not complete. The Supreme Court of India itself has ordered
so in 2013.
organisations around the world sent on 22 April an international appeal to
India, its states, Supreme Court and to the UN organs to prevent forced
evictions of millions of India's forest dwellers. Such evictions
would violate India's obligations on human rights and biodiversity.
The Supreme Court has ordered the states of India to evict millions of
forest dwellers after 10 of July 2019 if their claims on their forest
rights are rejected under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The FRA however
does not enact that such rejections can be used as a ground to justify or
to carry out forced eviction. No communities can be legally evicted
without their free informed consent even from the "critical wildlife
habitats" and certainly not from other areas.
In India and also globally, where communities live by the forests with
their customary tenures, bio-diverse forests have survived better than in
areas which state has registered to more commercial use, which displaces
the communities and the biodiversity they sustain as their livelihood
source. In order to save bio-diverse forest and to respect human rights
compliant to its obligations India has thus to protect forest communities
with customary tenures from forced evictions.
The FRA process "shall ensure" that communities' rights to protect and
manage forests as they have traditionally done are duly addressed and
"recognized in all villages with forest dwellers and the titles are
issued" to complete the claims recognition procedure. However, as in
most villages in India's sprawling forests, communities' rights over
forests have not been recorded, "no member of a forest dwelling" tribe or
other traditional community shall be evicted or removed from forest land
under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is
completed".
Because this claim verification has hardly started in many areas and
forest dwellers have not been even informed how they could duly claim many
of their forest rights, the eviction "would amount to penalizing them for
the failure of the state machinery to inform them of their rights".
And as FRA entitles them to claim various forest rights, even if their
claims on particular forest rights get rejected, they still remain
entitled to claim many other rights - including also "any other
traditional right customarily enjoyed". All forest rights as yet
unclaimed provide sufficient grounds to prevent eviction as the due legal
procedure is not complete. The Supreme Court of India itself has ordered
so in 2013.
Forced eviction of millions of forest dwellers would be gross violation of
human rights. Even more so as evictions are not proven being required by
law in strict compliance with India's international obligations and would
discriminate against tribals who are less than 9 % of India's population
but about 40 % of those evicted for India 'development'.
A fortnight after ordering the state governments to evict millions of
forest dwellers, the Supreme Court wondered “under which provision of law
the eviction has to be made” - as if ‘the eviction has to be made’
even without clarity which law would require it ! Also the Supreme Court
wondered even "who is the competent authority to pass such orders" on
eviction and what should be the process "for eviction after rejection
orders have been passed".
Under the FRA and India's constitution, however, the village council of
the community is the authority to determine whether someone belongs to the
community and how community forest resource is to be protected.
Evictions of tribals from their sustainable use of forest land transfers
it to commercial and industrial control much like what has happened
under the colonial laws like the Indian Forest Act, which has given
to the forest officials wide, corruptive powers to benefit from evicting
communities and destroying natural forests in the interests of business.
Government's on-going efforts to amend and strengthen such colonial-type
forest laws displace bio-diverse forest and evict people from their
sustainable livelihood in disregard of India's obligations on human rights
and biodiversity. But Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that FRA's task is
“granting a secure and inalienable right to those communities whose right
to life depends on right to forests", thus "strengthening the entire
conservation regime” by helping communities to live in forest as “integral
to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystems”.
Rejection of a forest right claim in the FRA process is no ground to
alienate people by forced eviction from their "not alienable" rights.
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