ARTICLE WRITING

Institute of Law, Nirma University

III Semester B.A.LL.B. (Hons.)

TOPIC: - Indigenous people rights over FOREST in Indian perspective

NUMBER OF WORDS: - 3680

Under the Guidance of: -

Mr. Surendra Kumar

Prepared & Submitted By: -

ADITYA PANDEY

(18BAL080)
Indigenous people rights over FOREST in Indian perspective

ABSTRACT: -

From time immemorial ‘Land’ for indigenous peoples was a means of both physical and
cultural survival, but in present time respect for their right to land is a fundamental concern.
The illegal acquisition of indigenous lands by states, continues from past till present time, not
only by state but also through state-condoned private actors. Even today, environmentally
devastating exercises of state or private companies exploit the indigenous lands and
indigenous community. ‘Tourism’ has also exploited indigenous community a lot, as the
ancestral sacrosanct cultural sites are not accessible to those who celebrated them since time
immemorial, but are open only for tourism purpose. And, still today, it’s a curse to
indigenous community that thousands of them around the world are obliged to abscond their
territories, and find themselves as insolvent refugees at the outskirts of cities. As the land and
natural resources are a matter of life or death for indigenous peoples, they are also all
together at the centre of states' perceived economic, political, and even military interests.

STATEMENT IF PROBLEM: -

The increasing urbanization and industrialization hunting down the rights of indigenous
people in forests. The use of violence by peaceful and non-violent people sounds very
strange, violence can be induced by several factors, the very reason behind this violence is
the infringement of their fundamental rights of ‘Right to life’ and also their ‘Right to
property’, which are curtailed by the government of India.

AIMS & OBJECTIVES OF STUDY: -

Being internationally recognised and admitted all the human rights by U.D.H.R., which also
guarantees to protect the fundamental rights of all, but in practicality the Indigenous people’s
rights remains undesignated. Indigenous Peoples continue to face serious threats to their basic
existence due to systematic government policies which though promises to protect their rights
but in an ironical way.
So, the main aim and objective of this paper is to analyse the tangled nexus between
behaviour of naxals, the reason why they use violence as their weapon against the state and
also what pushed them to rebel against the State, causing this act of violence. This analysis as
well includes the victimization of local villagers, how the resources which belong to
community equally are simply granted to few big private contractors who exploit not only
those resources, people but also the eco-system. All these cruelties of state against the local
people of Bastar and other naxal affected areas left them no other option then a war between
State and those rebels termed as ‘Naxals’.

RESEARCH METHADOLOGY: -

The analysis shall be based on the study of existing research, information and literature on the
subject of common property resources supplemented with case studies taken from various
secondary sources. The study will also include various studies and reports in the relevant
field by eminent scholars. The researcher herein also relies on theoretical and empirical
contribution by other eminent researchers. Broadly categorizing the author will be using the
‘Doctrinal’ methodology of research. It is purely theoretical based research, which consists of
either simple research aimed at finding a specific statement of the law, or it is legal analysis
which consists more complex logic and depth. Briefly describing, it is library-based research
that seeks to find the ‘one right answer’ to certain legal issues or questions. Thus, the aim of
this type of methodology is to make specific inquiries in order to identify specific pieces of
information.

INTRODUCTION: -

The fight to seek something which is your own is indeed very difficult, here the context is
referring about the rights of INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, who struggle really hard to get what in
itself is their own, if we talk from the perspective of India.

This fight for seeking their rights is contemporary to the rule of British in India, it is as old as
old 200+ years, but if we see after independence also no relief is conceded to them but since
last two decades if we see, transnational concerns over indigenous people, rights of
indigenous people and indigenous development has reignited a history of heated debate
shrouding indigeneity.
This article the anthropology and historiography of indigeneity in India. From the production
of ‘tribes of mind’ to the policies that have encouraged people to identify themselves as
‘Scheduled Tribes’, or ‘adivasis’, the article reviews the context that gave rise to the tensions
between claims for protection and assimilation of India's indigenous peoples.

In the current scenario if we see Naxalism is one among the biggest threat to our state, the
root of the problem lies in the simplest of issues, marginalization by the government of the
poor forest dwellers to whom the government sworn to protect, as the very land that they
depend on for their support, nourishment, their economic as well there physical growth is
snatched away. It has been assigned to giant multinational corporations in the name of
‘development’, by the exercise of the power of celebrated province. The paper aims to
analyse the inseperable link between the behaviour of naxals, their intention of using violence
against the State and the State’s acts which lead these indigenous people to pick up arms and
rebel against the state which eventually resulted into an act of violence.

BODY: -

From before the time of human life, as the earth pushed and pulled itself into shape under
heat and pressure, Archaean granite metamorphosed into gneiss. The plateaus thrust upwards,
while water flowed from the rocks to form the landscapes, for these indigenous people, these
forests were an intimate, though dangerous, but home. They fought the tigers to collect
colourless gum, pressed the yellow tora fruit for oil. Where these indigenous had no option
left but to clear the forests, they simply did not leave forests just by cutting them but they left
mahua and toddy trees to mark the bunds, and they also planted tamarind trees to shade the
village. In empty forest fields, the melodious sound of a wooden trap blowing in the wind
reminded humans and animals both, the presence of each other’s.
But as urbanization and capitalism hit hard, in cities, these forms of life find no favour. The
indigenous were marginalized to corners of the society far away from mainstream. The gods
of these indigenous that lived in the mountains were now signed to mining companies, whose
infra-vision does not see the lively beauty of the forest, the flower tucked behind the ear, the
feather in the dancing headgear, but only the minerals beneath.
This is where the real problem begins, initially there was very less suppression to these
indigenous people and they were given proper recognition and allowances, but gradually the
suppression increased and these indigenous people had no other option left other than picking
up arms and rebel against the state, again the result was not in their favour as the state
declared these innocent indigenous people who just protested to get what is their own as
‘Naxalites’.

The state violated their rights of life and also right to freedom by the name operations named
as ‘Operation Green Hunt’, started in 2009 in 5 states for hunting down the naxalits or these
indigenous people by depleting the army troops in those areas1. These army men burnt down
the homes of innocent indigenous people and forced them to move into camps made by state
so they can give their lands to mining corporations, clearing the natural forests and planting
trees and crops which were beneficial for business purpose and not for the life of these
indigenous people, which infringed their ‘right to life’. Author here finds a great irony; all
this infringement of rights is done and the name of this process is given ‘Purification Hunt’ or
the counter insurgency operation2. In addition, counter-insurgencies have similar
consequences for civilians. Looting and/or burning of villages is standard as are murders,
rapes and widespread arrests of the civilian population that too without any arrest warrants
which in a huge infringement of ‘Right to life’. Forcing villagers into camps, often called
‘model villages’, under police, paramilitary or army surveillance in order to isolate the
insurgents and break the support of the civilians is part of a widespread strategy variously
called ‘grouping’ or forced population removal. This strategy was borrowed from the
Americans, where they isolated the groups of revolting people into smaller groups to weaken
their strength, “during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), more Boer women, children and
blacks died than male Boer combatants after being regrouped in British ‘concentration
camps’; in Vietnam, over 8.5 million people had been settled in 7205 strategic hamlets by
1963; in Algeria during 1954–61, 1.9 to 2.3 million civilians were grouped by the French;
and in Kenya over a million people were resettled in 854 villages to crush the Mau Mau
revolt”3.

All this is hard to believe so was that for the author but here the author cites few lines of an
ex-army man, who himself confirms and tells that they had orders to burn the villages of
Indigenous people and force them to go away.

1
Economic Times, 12 April 2013; Rashmi Drolia, ‘Chhattisgarh budget: Raman announces 4 new battalions in
Bastar to fight rebels’.
2
Rashmi Drolia, ‘Mission 2016: DRG force pressed into anti-Naxalite ops in Chhattisgarh’, Times of India, 5
February 2016.
3
Nandini Sundar, ‘Interning insurgent populations’, Economic and Political Weekly 46, No. 6 (2011), pp. 47–
57.
“Darzo (Mizoram) was one of the richest villages I have ever seen in this part of the world…
My orders were to get the villagers to collect whatever moveable property they could, and to
set their own village on fire at seven in the evening. I also had orders to burn all the paddy
and other grain that could not be carried away by the villagers to the new centre so as to keep
food out of reach of the insurgents… I called the Darzo Village Council President and his
village elders and ordered them to sign a document saying that they had voluntarily asked to
be resettled in Hnahthial PPV (Protected and Progressive Village) under the protection of the
Security Forces as they were being harassed by the insurgents, and because their own village
did not have communications, educational, medical and other facilities. Another document
stated that they had burnt down their own village, and that no force or coercion was used by
the Security Forces. They refused to sign. So, I sent them out and after an hour called them in
again, this time one man at a time. On my table was a loaded revolver, and in the corner stood
two NCOs with loaded sten-guns. This frightened them, and one by one they signed both the
documents”4.

The author not only finds the infringement of ‘right to life’ of these indigenous people, but
also the infringement of a law of Geneva convention, which states that ‘Starvation’ of
civilians or of any person as a mode to kill them or defeat them is prohibited under the laws
of combat5, which also includes destroying, removing, render useless, for that purpose,
objects vital for the survival of the indigenous population living in those forests, such as
food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops, livestock, drinking
water installations.

The state used these people as their weapon to fight against their own people, they formed
SPOs, many of these SPOs were former Maoists or their village-level workers, called
sangham members. The supreme court in 2011 declared using these local youths as SPOs as
their militants to fight as this is wrong using these jobless youths for fight this is an
infringement of their ‘right to life’ in a dignified manner, but state responded in a negative
manner, it amended the name of SPOs to auxiliary armed police force and continued using
those local youths to fight naxalits6.

4
An army officer’s reminiscences reproduced in Lalkhama, A Mizo Civil Servant’s Random Reflections
(Ghaziabad: Express Print House, 2006).
5
Art. 14 of the Additional Protocol (II) to the Geneva Convention, relating to the protection of victims of non-
international armed conflict, 8 June 1977, https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume
%201125/volume-1125-I-17513-English.pdf.
6
Rashmi Drolia, ‘Mission 2016: DRG force pressed into anti-Naxalite ops in Chhattisgarh’, Times of India, 5
February 2016.
Author finds no mistake of these indigenous youths in joining SPOs, as they are left with no
other options for employment, if we check the employment rate of Chhattisgarh, in 2015,
around 75,000 people filled application for 30 peon positions7.

The illegal detention of these indigenous people can be very easily recognized just by looking
into the prison statistics of state Chattisgarh, in the year 2013, the Chhattisgarh prisons were
running at a capacity of 261 percent, or speaking in numerical terms, 15,840 prisoners as
against a capacity of 6070 prisoners, this was noted as the highest levels of overcrowding in
any prison of the country. Of this, Kanker had an occupancy rate of 428 per cent, Dantewada
of 371 per cent and Jagdalpur jail of 260 per cent.8

Author raises a question, it is not just a coincidence that in a state where the state is infringing
the rights of indigenous people, burning their homes, clearing their lands and the prisons of
that state are flooding out the prisoners, due to high over crowding of prisoners. It seems
quite simple that, this overcrowding in prisons is nothing other than forcing these indigenous
people without any proper trial into the jails to clear out their property and land for the
mining corporations.

Author here finds another point to back his claim, i.e. the construction of six-lane highways
inside the jungles connecting those villages from one another and also the deep-dense jungle
to urban lands, it is very ironical that state does not expand roads in cities where the
population of mobilizing vehicles are 100 times more then from that area. The villagers
complain that these construction companies are clearing out the forests for constructing six-
lane highways, though the number of vehicles which pass through them daily are only 5-6.

What author herein trying to convey through his work is that, all this is done as a part of
future planning, when there will be huge mines working inside those lands for 24X7, huge
trucks would be requiring space to move in and out of those areas for transporting the
minerals and extracted goods.

If we take a look at the population density in Dantewada, it is just 59 persons per square
kilometre, while in Bijapur it is just 39 persons per square kilometre 9, according to the census
of 2011. But the planning done by state is clearly for a future where the ore-laden trucks will
make their way out in a continuous stream.
7
Ejaz Kaiser, ‘75,000 applications for 30 peon posts, officials cancel Exam’, Hindustan Times, 24 August 2015.
8
National Crime Records Bureau, 2013, http://ncrb.nic.in/PSI-2013/CHAPTER-2.pdf.
9
Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, District Census Hand-Book
CHHATTISGARH, (Nov. 13, 2019, 01:15 AM),
http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/Chhattisgarh.html
 10

As you can see inside the box a highway passing through the core-minerals rich part of jungle.

Another ironical fact which author writes about, is the description and discrimination of roads
which connects village to village or are for the usage of indigenous people of that area are not
even in proper condition to be called upon as roads, but on other hand the roads connecting
NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation) to steel plants are wide and well paved.
Which directly shows the infringement of ‘right to life’ with dignity of these indigenous people
by state.

The state for building a steel plant of TATA in Lohandiguda, on the property of indigenous
people living there for many years, carried out various rapes, false arrests of indigenous people
living there, the state cannot do all this directly so for doing this they took the help of dacoits
from CPI party. In 2007, the state carried out rapes and false arrests of the indigenous villagers,
seeking help and organized by the people of CPI, to clear the indigenous people out from their
own land, which later on can be easily given to the TATA. 11

The author herein attaches a map of bastar district, which is famous as the core zone of
Naxalites, to show why state shows so much interest in this piece of land or why state is
trying so hard to move these indigenous people out from this part, so state can sell this lad to
mining corporations. This map shows how important is ‘Bastar’ to state, the amount of
minerals here are very high.

10
Maps of India, Chhattisgarh Road Network Map, (Nov. 14, 2019, 02:01 AM),
https://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/chhattisgarh/chhattisgarhroads.htm
11
Letter to NHRC, ‘Police atrocities on Madia (Gondi) adivasi women in Lohandiguda, Bastar’, 28 March 2007,
signed by Ramuram Maurya of the Prastavit Tata Steel Jan Adhikar Samiti and Bela Bhatia.
The acquisition of land for the projects of industry, mines, defence and roads rose up
dramatically in the latter period, which was initially 34.72 per cent of all acquisition,
ironically the acquisition of land for health and education stayed at zero. If we check the
period between 1991 to 2007, 3703.75 acres of land were acquired for the purpose of defence
alone in Bastar12. Also, if we check prior to this period, i.e. between 1982 to 1990, the
acquisition of land for the water projects was 96 %, which later decreased to 49 % between
1991 to 2007.

It is very easy to answer, why bastar is so important to state, as only Bastar’s contribution in
mineral wealth is 10 % of the country’s iron ore reserves, apart from other expensive
minerals which includes (bauxite, platinum, corundum, dolomite, limestone, etc.); minerals
undoubtedly contribute greatly to the state’s revenues13, so why will state let go this region
very easily from their hands, no matter how many times they need to violate the fundamental
rights of indigenous people living there. All this land after acquitting from the indigenous
people is given to private mining owners, which again pay state a lot of money, 18 mining
leases were sanctioned to private owners in Chhattisgarh, out of which 12 were located in

12
Government of India, Report of the High Level Committee on Socioeconomic, Health and Educational Status
of Tribal Communities of India (henceforth Xaxa Committee Report) (New Delhi: Ministry of Tribal Affairs,
2014), Table 8.12, p. 272.
13
Performance Audit on ‘Assessment, Levy and Collection of Major and Minor Mineral Receipts’ of the
Government of Chhattisgarh, conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General,
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/chhattisgarh%20performance%20audit%20on
%20mining.pdf.
Bastar district alone; and over 95 % of prospecting licences issued (21 prospecting licences);
were passed on to private companies.14

What the government is doing by launching so many projects one after the other in that area
will not only affect the indigenous population of that geography but will disturb the
geographical condition of that as well as of surrounding places. The plan of shows that it
wants to submerge that indigenous land beneath the projects, Jagdalpur is surrounded by steel
plants so the entire region is criss-crossed by infrastructure of pipelines, roads and railway
lines carrying iron ore and other minerals in a continuous stream. The government also have
alternate plans for areas where there are no mines, the government will built dams and
reservoirs to supply power to industrial plants of those areas, like the Polavaram dam in
Andhra Pradesh, but the negative affect of it is that it, will submerge much of Konta block,
while the Bodhghat hydroelectric project which was once put on hold is now revived will
flood villages in Dantewada. The rich, dense and thick biodiversity of this indigenous region
will be a thing of the past, between these mines, dams and the defence establishments as the
defence base at Mardum and the Jungle Warfare College in Kanker have done.

Author taking slight off road from main topic and explaining other natural hazardous
occurring because of state’s act in that indigenous geography. Its now not limited to the
infringement of fundamental rights of indigenous people, but if state continue its act of
acquiring land and doing mining, our country will loose 26 plant species which are included
in the endangered species of vascular plants of India; not only flora but some species of fauna
also like, 22 mammalian species living in those areas, out of which 15 are either in
Endangered or Vulnerable list of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
appendices or Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) schedules; also many insects including a few
rare ones, 28 species of Butterflies and 102 species of birds.15

The author also referred to ‘Forest Rights Act, 2006’, and finds many violations of laws and
statutes mentioned in it: -

 Section 2(a) of this act defines ‘community forest resource’ as, “means customary
common forest land within the traditional or customary boundaries of the village or
seasonal use of landscape in the case of pastoral communities, including reserved
14
Supriya Sharma, ‘Iron ore mines going for Rs 1 lakh in Chhattisgarh?’ Times of India, 2 August 2010.
15
National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment for Mining
and Infrastructural Facilities at Raoghat, District Bastar, Chhattisgarh, 2006.
 forests, protected forests and protected areas such as Sanctuaries and National Parks
to which the community had traditional access” 16. Which means that the forest land,
property belongs to the community residing there who have traditional access to it for
performing their customs, religious beliefs and traditional practices. To which the
state is not abiding and acquiring the lands of indigenous people.

 Section 2(o) of this act defines ‘other traditional forest dweller’ as, “means any
member or community who has for at least three generations prior to the 13th day of
December, 2005 primarily resided in and who depend on the forest or forests land for
bona fide livelihood needs”17. Which means that to come under the ambit of this
section the community should be living there for minimum 25 years. The indigenous
people are living there from time immemorial so they automatically comes under the
ambit of this section.

 Secton 3 (2) of this act tells about when and in what situation can state clear the forest
land of indigenous people.
“Notwithstanding anything contained in the Forest (Conservation)
Act, 1980, the Central Government shall provide for diversion of
forest land for the following facilities managed by the Government
which involve felling of trees not exceeding seventy-five trees
per hectare, namely: -
(a) schools;
(b) dispensary or hospital;
(c) anganwadis;
(d) fair price shops;
(e) electric and telecommunication lines;
(f) tanks and other minor water bodies;
(g) drinking water supply and water pipelines;
(h) water or rain water harvesting structures;
(i) minor irrigation canals;
(j) non-conventional source of energy;
(k) skill up-gradation or vocational training centres;

16
Forest Rights Act, 2006, art. 2(a).
17
Forest Rights Act, 2006, art. 2(o).
 (l) roads;
(m) community centres.

Provided that such diversion of forest land shall be allowed

only if, -
 the forest land to be diverted for the purposes
mentioned in this subsection is less than one hectare
in each case; and
 the clearance of such developmental projects shall be
subject to the condition that the same is recommended
by the Gram Sabha”18.

So, if we check the list there is no as such mentioning of term ‘Mining’ or ‘Extraction of
Minerals’, but still state continues with its own business of infringing rights of indigenous
people by breaking laws.

The war which these indigenous people support, they too want a peaceful life. But on the
other hand author beliefs there is a strong reason why they support it, why the mothers of that
land ask their children to or feel proud and happy with the decision that their children
abandoned their career and comfort for the hard and dangerous life as a ‘professional
revolutionary’, they feel proud simply because these lands are their gods, which the state is
forcefully and unlawfully snatching away from them, and if their own children fight for this
land they are protecting their own god. The other indigenous people also support these naxals
by providing them help in any possible manner, as for example, if a police troop is travelling
in bus, the driver will blow horn in a special way so as to alert these guerrillas (fighting
youths).

CONCLUSION: -

18
Forest Rights Act, 2006, art. 3(2).
The author cannot endure the unbearable sadness of what actually happens with these
indigenous people in their daily lives, what according to author should a indigenous place
should be like is explained as, author see the forested hills around indigenous geography,
with no sign of a paramilitary camp or mines or dams. The jungle should be left alone with its
indigenous guards to cover the scars which it faced in past. People responsible for mass
crimes should be sent in jails not the innocent indigenous people who are protesting for their
rights. New laws should be constituted which will give all indigenous people the right to
decide how they want their resources to be used. Eminent domain, under which the
government claimed ownership of all land, should be banned forever. What actually the
government is required to do is to level the fields, and built ponds, schools, hospitals, etc. The
indigenous people should be helped in setting up small cottage industries which will help in
adding value to the minor forest produce they were collecting. New methods are required for
sustainable agriculture and primary health care centres need to be set up working in every
panchayat.