|
|
A joint committee of Members of
Parliament had submitted a draft
legislation, which will no doubt pass
because it has the over-enthusiastic
support of the communists, which seeks
to make over valued forest land over
to the tribal population. The concept
is that the tribals have been ancient
guardians of the forests and have
learnt to use the land effectively
without compromising the delicate
ecological balance. What follows is
that with the land under their
control, their net worth goes up,
increasing their social standing, and
therefore upgrades them into the
modern world.
Well, that is theory. The reality is
that many of the tribals are
illiterate and essentially under the
control of the politician who is also
a land mafiaso, a murdering criminal,
and an extortionist who can operate
with impunity. While conceptually the
land is owned by the tribals, there is
no protection from coercion, threats,
and retribution for not “selling” the
land to the “real estate” agents who
are really operatives of the
politician. Moreover, the tribal has
no control over those who enter their
land as they will not get even the
nominal support of the under-trained
and under-equipped forest guards. What
cannot be protected are endangered
animals, old growth forests, and the
lives of the tribal poor. Therefore,
the politicians are impatient to get a
law passed that will in essence write
themselves large tracts of mineral and
resource rich land waiting to be
exploited.
Environmentalists are throwing up
their hands in frustration and
essentially waiting to use the only
organ of the Government that can be
expected to function, the Judiciary,
to contain the bill. Wildlife Trust of
India says that it appears that “8%
growth is more important than 5%
protected areas.”
Actually, this is not the conventional
development versus environment debate
as in the case of Narmada Dam. It is
not even animal versus human
habitation debate as in the case of
stray elephants in Kerala, Karnataka,
and Tamil Nadu. This is case of
misplaced values of right and wrong,
justice, and plain greed. The
communists think that giving the
tribals the land will “right” the
“wrong” done to them all these years.
The tribals think that they have a
right to their own small fortune and
therefore just to have allocated the
land that generations before them so
assiduously managed and guarded. The
other politicians cannot stop the glee
in gaining access to so much land with
resources and outside the ambit of the
law. |
