Feedback from the Field: a close up critical view of Forest Rights Act

 

Phyllanthus emblica or Amla offers infinite medicinal value to human kind. Its biodiverse powers are yet to be fully discovered and understood by Humankind. 

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation 

Unedited Interview Transcripts of Chief of Village Forest Committee - VFC) Mr. Bommalinge Gowda of Muneshwara Swamy Grama Aranya Samiti, Jodagatte Iruligara Colony, Kalyani Palya, Marbal Hobli, Magadi Taluq, Ramnagar District Karnataka.

“Because of Forest Rights Act, Medicinal Plants Conservation Area cannot flourish. Secondly, Savandurga is a rocky area. But habitat is ideal for propagation of “Makali Beru" -   Decalepis hamiltonii. It is used extensively in making pickles in Karnataka and in Ayurvedic medicines and nutraceuticals.

 

Our VFC’s initiatives included sustainable harvest of medicinal plants so as to propagate ex situ cultivation. Karnataka Medicinal Plants Authority  has supported ex situ conservation / propagation / cultivation and marketing of such (medicinal plants) produce.

 

Other medicinal plants propagated by the VFC include

1.      Madhunashini (in Kannada) (Gudmar and Meshashringi  in Hindi) Gymnema sylvestre is the botanical name,

2.      Shatavari (in Kannada and Hindi), Asparagus racemosus is the botanical name,

3.      Tamarind (Imli in Hindi), (Hunasehannu in Kannada) (Tamarindus indica)

4.      Jamoon, (Syzijium cuminii)

5.      Sogadeberu, (Indian Sarasaparilla) 

 

But Forest Rights Act or FRA is so powerful that VFC  supported livelihood sustainability as was provided for by the Biodiversity Act of 2002 is almost wholly nullified. VFC activities are almost wholly decimated now by FRA. Irulas for example are no longer interested in harvesting medicinal plants. They tell forest officials that FRA empowers them … that they can harvest and consume it themselves without having to be a part of VFCs.

 Deputy Range Forest Officer Krishnamurthy of Magadi Taluq, Ramnagar Forest Division, Ramnagar District Karnataka:

Deputy Range Forest Officer Krishnamurthy: "commercial activities like mining, temples, bars and restaurants, etc should not be permitted within a 100 metres periphery of Protected Areas and Reserved Forests. Fencing divides the habitat; isolating herds of endangered wildlife. This causes isolation of genetic pool of endangered wildlife that leads to inbreeding of endangered wildlife. This inbreeding will leave the genetic pool weakened leading to decimation and dwindling of their numbers. This is the crux of anthropogenic conflict.

Isolated individual wildlife this Deer is doubly endangered because of fragmentation of habitat. It cant find a partner from a different herd to breed . Inbreeding weakens its genetic pool © BNHS.

Liveihood security from Biodiversity conservation  is an exemplary provision of India's flagship Biodiversity Act of 2002. But, the labyrinth f Biodiversity legislation - read Forest Rights Act of 2006 has ostensibly decimated livelihood securiy of forest dwellers. 

Bee keeping (part of livelihood security provisions of Biodiversity Act) is affected by insecticides used in forest fringe farming. Bees act as Bioshields in mitigating human wildlife conflict especially in elephant dense migrating corridors of the endangered pachyderm. But I can assure you madam that the Irulas living around the Savandurga Reserved Forests are not indulging in poaching or smuggling of forest produce”. 

It took the decimation of all 22 tigers in the premier Sariska Tiger Reserve in 2004 - 05 for Indian politicians to get documentary evidence of anthropogenic conflict. The Joining the Dots Tiger Task Force Report shockingly sympathised with the hunter instead of the hunted Royal Bengal Tiger, and resulted in institutionalising and legitimising poaching. The Forest Rights Act gave unequivocal rights to forest dwellers  despite ardent dissent and opposition to legitimising poaching of endangered wildlife. Woe betide the Royal Bengal Tiger and its faunal spectrum for not having voting rights. 

Balaraju, An Irula tribal from Jodakatte Irula Colony in Magadi Taluq, maadbal Hobli, Ramnagara district,

“We are descendants of native Irulas from Savandurga area in Ramnagara district. We do not claim or have any linkage with Irulas from other states. Our ancestors were evicted from Reserved Forest areas almost 200 years ago – in about 1834. (There are documents from the British Administration to prove this). Irulas have settled around the forests. Education has not been given any prominence in our community. … Essentially because of poverty. One Irula person has become a lawyer. After eviction from Savandurga forests (after it was notified as Reserved Forest) we have settled around the Reserved Forests. No land titles have been given. We have no livelihood support. Irulas claim ownership of Common Property Resources and can prove it too, but district administration is not granting us the rights to live on our own lands here. We have appealed to the Supreme Court to reinvestigate our land rights. Yes we have built houses with financial help from Government of Karnataka - pucca houses, not thatched roof tenements or straw huts. But no we do not have toilets and sanitation infrastructure, no sanitation despite Swatch Bharath Abhiyan.  Though government funded toilet construction is highly publicised, no, am sorry to say open defecation is still prevalent in our village – obviously – because there is no sanitation infrastructure to speak of. Our livelihoods are based on forest resource production / harvesting. Under the provisions of Forest Rights Act, we harvest bamboo, tamarind. Bamboo basket making is a source of income for us Irulas. Bamboo, we are told, is a “user-fruct” forest product, and makes a sustainable source of livelihood for us Irula tribals.

Forest Rights Act has helped us but we are not benefitting, because we have no land rights or titles.  We are willing to live outside Protected (Forest) Areas as long as we have livelihood security and food security. If we were evicted from our forest settlements, we need our rights to be settled and compensated. We cannot and are unable to meet two ends meet with the livelihood options under MNREGA or Mahatma Gandhi national Rural Employment Guarantee only. Our village has no school, no hospital / health care or Primary Health Care Centre. Forest Rights Act provides access to non-timber Forest Produce, Minor Forest Produce, herbs, land rights to forest dwellers etc. but the forest department objects to everything – without livelihood we are struggling with a hand to mouth existence. We try to supplement our income from MNREGA by working as agricultural labourers in fruit plantations around the Reserved forest. We get only about eight days of daily wage income per month in these fruit plantations. We don’t mind living outside reserved forests but without titles or land rights documentation our rights are not established. So much for Forest Rights Act.

                                    

Thanks to fruit plantations on industrial scale, bees have disappeared (thanks to insecticides). This has had a deleterious impact on honey collection income which is a traditional livelihood of forest dwellers”.

In conversation with Malini Shankar