On democratising forest governance...the unfolding saga....
Simply told....as it is....
The Adivasis of India raised the issue of forest rights to the forefront of the nation’s politics. The State dithered…a process of legislative enactment to address the “historic injustice” emerged. The context that precipitated this crisis, the issues, the ground reality, the emergent proposal, and the historic background of the continuing struggles of Adivasis against colonization and internal colonization is narrated here.
The progressive subjugation, appropriation, enclosure and policing of the forests in India since the colonial period left millions of forest peoples in a precarious struggle for survival and waging a continuous battle for their rights. The exclusionary development and conservation thrust left in its wake, devastated forests and forest peoples. What began as the final uprooting of forest peoples from the forests in 2002, ironically triggered a nationwide struggle that forged a unique law in 2006 on tenurial rights and forest governance, with communities in control over both environment and development. However, in the decade since then, despite having made remarkable strides, with the threat of losing their vicious hold over the forest and lives of forest peoples, the state and particularly the forest bureaucracy, elite environmentalists, and the corporates continue to confront the forest peoples and the law relentlessly. For the narrative of the ongoing power struggle as it unfolded, detailing the making of the law, and the simultaneous strengthening of the law and its subversion in law and practice, read on here.
The Forest Rights Act was born within the megalith that established itself firmly as a colonial oppressive regime that, over the decades, extended its legal authority over forest diversion, wildlife crimes and creating inviolate areas for wildlife. All this as a whole was to undergo a drastic transition to a democracy centered on communities at the habitation level. It meant radical reconstruction of the colonial institutional mechanism that is to give way to the new community based democratic institutions spread all across most of the forests. This transition was also to be a community driven process facilitated by the very same hegemonic structures of governance. Therein lies the internal contradiction and challenges. This is outlined as it evolved here.
Ever since the enactment of the Forest Rights Act in 2006, the Environment Ministry relentlessly resisted this law, its substance and implementation, and its nodal ministry, the Tribal Affairs Ministry. This law is to operationalise the transition of forest governance from a colonial repressive forest regime to a democratic regime, realigning the power relationship at the national, state and the local levels, if not in all of the forests, at least in a substantial part of the forest. The Environment Ministry and its forest bureaucracy perceive this law as debilitating their inherited hegemonic power which they have grown to believe as their exclusive domain over vast areas designated as “forest”. This resistance to the Forest Rights Act - an enabling law, that could finally give the forests the much-needed democracy, security and nurturing - the methods adopted and the intended outcome are chronicled here.