Guest Post by VASUDHA NAGARAJ

Korsa Subba Rao, a man from Koya tribe, cultivates about three acres of forest land in a village in Khammam district. His family has been doing so for several generations. Subba Rao has a ration card, voter identity card, Aadhar Card and a NREGA job card. However, for the land that he tills, he has no papers whatsoever. Ironically the only evidence he has is an FIR issued by the Forest department. For committing a forest offence of encroaching into the forest – cutting down trees and putting it to podu cultivation.

Like Korsa Subba Rao, in Khammam district, there are thousands of farmers belonging to Koya, Konda Reddis and Lambadi tribal communities cultivating one to four acres in forest lands. Most of them have been cultivating since the times of their forefathers. Often this is their only income. However, factors such as scanty rain, untimely rain or pest can drastically reduce this income. The prevalence of malaria and other mosquito borne diseases also adds to the toll.

Here, it needs to be understood that forest lands do not always imply green forests. A forest land can be dense forest, moderate forest, shrub growth and also barren land. In Khammam district, thousands of acres of forest lands have been put to cultivation since several decades. But any cultivation of forest land is considered to be illegal, as it is an offence as per the AP Forest Act, 1967. In this scheme of things, the tribal farmers are seen as “encroachers”. The irony is that they are encroachers inspite of being the original inhabitants of the land. Because of this illegality and because of the power of the Forest Department to register criminal cases, the tribal farmers live in a constant fear of eviction from their lands.

With the express objective of correcting the “historical injustice” done to the Scheduled Tribes cultivating forest lands, the UPA government in  2007 enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. For the very first time, this Act empowers the Gram Sabhas to record the claims of those cultivating forest lands and recommend issuing of pattas to all eligible people. In Khammam district, where there are large swathes of forest land under tribal cultivation, a methodical survey and verification of the claims is yet to be completed. In the meantime, Korsa Subba Rao and his brothers and sisters are categorized as encroachers, and asked to evict.

New drive for forest regeneration by the Telangana government

But the tale does not end here. The tribal farmer has to pay the price each time there is a cry about our dwindling forests.  Currently the Telangana government has issued a directive that our forests have to be regenerated. The Forest Department has undertaken a massive drive of afforestation in Pinapaka, Dummugudem, Enkoor, Julurupadu and Chandrugonda Mandals in Khammam district. They are on a mission to evict the so called ‘encroachers’, clear the forest lands, and plant trees. This mission is being undertaken even in forest lands which has seen no forest as such in the past 50 years.

Faced with the imminent threat of eviction, the tribal farmers are now running from pillar to post. Because they have no papers, the Forest Department thinks that they can be evicted any time.  Their complaints to the law are not strong enough, as they have no locus except the bare fact of their possession. In the courts, they are ridiculed for their lack of documents. “If you say that you have been tilling from the time of your forefathers, you should have atleast some documents. How can you till land without a document”? Because this is cultivation of forest land, the farmer cannot seek a bank loan, or a subsidy from the government and hence is totally bereft of documents. The Aadhar, ration and Voter identity cards are insufficient to prove possession.  A somewhat reliable document is the FIR, registered against him for clearing the forest. Perhaps, never has a criminal proceeding attained such value in a farmer’s life.

Despite these limitations, in about 1200 acres of forest lands, the tribal farmers have sought the protection of the High Court against the illegality and arbitrariness of the evictions carried out by the Forest Department. Not all of them have been fortunate to petition the High Court. It is expensive to petition the law. And this means a further drain on their meager resources.

The fact of the matter is that if they are evicted from this land, they would be reduced to destitution. As it is, they live a precarious existence riddled with poverty, disease and uncertainty. In the absence of any other employment in the district, cultivation is the only source of livelihood. Hundreds of tribal famers in the district of Khammam plead with the Forest Department to let them be. To let them live. Not a life of luxury, but a bare minimum life.

The tate of Telangana cannot afford to turn a blind eye to this predicament. It is not as if the State is unaware of their marginalized lives. It has to understand that any regeneration of the forest has implications for the lives of the tribal farmers who are an integral part of these lands. They voted for the new state of Telangana with the hope that their status would be elevated. From that of an ‘encroacher’ to that of a ‘patta holder’. But the harsh reality is otherwise.

In its Election Manifesto the TRS party promised 3 acres of land to every Schedule Tribe. Even if the government cannot assign lands, atleast let it allow the Schedule Tribes to continue their possession of existing lands. The government ought to protect the livelihood interests of the tribal farmers as much as it does the forests. A policy of regeneration of forests has to address the lives that are dependent on these forest lands.

Vasudha Nagaraj is a lawyer associated with Anveshi, Hyderabad