Now, in an order dated May 25, the Forest Department has flagged procedural violations in the issue of these eviction notices. It directed the officials to note that their settlements, known as Khattey, can be removed only when proper provisions are made for their resettlements, reported The Hindu.

Van Gujjars from several villages in the Terai East and West Divisions had received such eviction notices. However, when TOI spoke to forest range officer Laxman Singh Martolia of Bannakheda range in Terai West division, he said, “The letter were solely intended to inform them that anti-forest activities would not be tolerated within the forest area.”

The Uttarakhand Forest Department had issued eviction notices to approximately 400 Van Gujjars to vacate their houses as a part of a drive to clear encroachments on forest property, like religious places, settlements or any other structures that cropped up illegally. It is also pertinent to note that most of these Van Gujjars belong to the Muslim community.

Van Gujjars are nomadic forest dwelling pastoral communities residing in Uttarakhand. The Van Gujjars of Uttarakhand mark the onset of summer season with their annual migration to the Himalayan ‘bugyals’ or meadows, and in the winter season they move towards the lower mountains of the Shivalik range. As reported in Times of India, Van Panchayat Sangharsh Morcha (VPSM), an organization working towards safeguarding the rights of the forest dwellers has written to the Principal Forest Secretary requesting the Government to halt the displacement of these forest dwellers and highlighted the procedural issues and lapses in the orders. Tarun Joshi, a member of VPSM highlighted one of the issues as “such notices can be issued by an officer holding the rank of a divisional forest officer”. As reported in the Times of India, on May 22, around 100 Van Gujjars, including women and children protested the order “to immediately vacate the land” in Ramnagar, Nainital district.

The Van Gujjars have stated that their claims filed under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (also known as the Forest Rights Act) are still pending with the government.
The Forest Rights Act, 2003

The Section 3 of Forest Rights Act, 2003 recognizes the right of the forest dwellers to ‘hold and live in the forest land under the individual or common occupation for habitation or for self-cultivation for livelihood by a member or members of a forest dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers’. Further, Section 4 of the Act clearly states that in case they are residing in ‘critical wildlife habitats of National Parks and Sanctuaries’ these forest dwellers need to be rehabilitated first.

Further, the Guidelines on the implementation of Forest Rights Act issued by the Ministry for Tribal Affairs clearly state,

“Section 4(5) of the Act is very specific and provides that no member of a forest dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers shall be evicted or removed from the forest land under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is complete. This clause is of an absolute nature and excludes all possibilities of eviction of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes or other traditional forest dwellers without settlement of their forest rights as this Section opens with the words “Save as otherwise provided”. The rationale behind this protective clause against eviction is to ensure that in no case a forest dweller should be evicted without recognition of his rights as the same entitles him to a due compensation in case of eventuality of displacement in cases, where even after recognition of rights, a forest area is to be declared as inviolate for wildlife conservation or diverted for any other purpose. In any case, Section 4(1) has the effect of recognizing and vesting forest rights in eligible forest dwellers. Therefore, no eviction should take place till the process of recognition and vesting of forest rights under the Act is complete.”

They further lay down, “in view of the provisions of Section 4(5) of the Act, no eviction and resettlement is permissible from the National Parks and Sanctuaries till all the formalities relating to recognition and verification of their claims are completed.”

It is the duty of the State Level Monitoring Committee to ensure that these guidelines are followed.

Uttarakhand High Court order

In the Think Act Rise Foundation through Arjun Kasana vs State of Uttarakhand and Ors. Writ Petition (PIL) No. 140 of 2019 (order dated 25th May 2021) the Uttarakhand High Court through an interim order upheld the right of a qafila (caravan) of Van Gujjars to migrate to their summer homesteads in the bugyals (Himalayan alpine meadows) in the Govind Pashu Vihar National Park in Uttarkashi district. The court noted,

“It is, indeed, trite to state that Article 21 of the Constitution of India forbids the State from reducing the lives of its people below the animal existence. Every citizen not only has a right to live, but also has a right to live with dignity.”

The eviction notices to the Van Gujjars again show an attempt on the part of the state to remove them from their lands which in itself is violative of Article 21 of the Constitution and their rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

Related:

A Day in the Life of Van Gujjars

HC order empowers Van Gujjars during Covid-19

Bullets and bureaucracy: Van Gujjars of Shivalik hills are caught in the crosshairs

How can you ever ‘resettle’ an ancient way of life?

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Lucknow: Amid slogans of liberty, freedom and rights, hundreds of tribal people assembled and carried out a rally at dense forest areas of Dhekwah village in Rajapur gram panchayat of Marihan tehsil under Mirzapur district on Monday, demanding implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the withdraw all cases registered against them.

The protesters, who marched to the ‘stone rocks’ on the banks of Jharinagari Nala, also sought 200 days minimum work for labourers in a year on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) job card and Rs 600 wage/day.

Despite the icy winds keeping the chill alive, which brought down the temperatures, people from at least seven villages of Marihan tehsil participated in the protest. The protest is being held under the banner of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has been working to implement FRA in the region for nearly six years.

FRA is a law that was brought in by the parliament in 2006 recognising that in several states across the country, there are people dependent on forest land for their livelihoods and that the forest conservation related legislations and the lack of proper forest and revenue settlement process had worked to deprive people of their rights on forest land. FRA grants land rights to those tribals and forest dwellers who have been tilling the land for years.

“On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary, around 300 tribals — both men and women — assembled under CPI(M) banner to raise the long pending demands. The land of the forest is under the control of the feudalistic land mafia and so-called religious babas. Such mafias were grabbing tribal lands by faking documents and winning the support of the police and the government. We want a proper implementation of FRA by the Forest department,” Rajnath Yadav, district president of CPI(M), led the protest, told NewsClick, adding that illegal occupation should be removed from the fertile land and it should be distributed among the landless adivasis (aboriginals).

Accusing the local police of allegedly engaging in multiple illegal methods of keeping adivasis away from forest lands, Yadav added, “Forest officials are preventing them from tilling their lands. When they object to these acts and stake their claim, they are threatened with false cases and arrests. However, religious baba Jai Gurudev occupied nearly 650 bigha land illegally, and nothing has happened despite notice served to him four months back.”

He further says, “Former Marihan MLA Lalitesh Pati Tripathi also occupied 6,500 bigha land near Kalwari, which belongs to tribals of the region. He was also served notice. Another baba, Swami Agra Nand Maharaj, is in the news for grabbing land in Sakteshgarh. The intimidation, eviction notices, and fake cases are only meant for poor adivasis but not applicable on these land mafias.”

The CPI(M) leader alleged that tribal people in Dhekwah, Darhiram, Rajapur, Marihan, Atari, Pateri, and Patehara villages are preventing them from farming by planting thorny plants so that they can not grow crops for their survival.

“The tribals have been denied their rights under MNREGA and FSA in tribal regions for years. We have been demanding rights for several years but to no avail,” says Yadav, who has been actively advocating for implementing FRA in the State.

Meanwhile, workers engaged at the sites of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have demanded an increase in work days from the present 100 to 200/household and a revision in the daily wages to Rs 600.

Dinkar Kapoor, state general secretary of All India Peoples’ Front, who is also a petitioner in FRA speaking with NewsClick, said, “93,430 land title claims were filed under FRA, and 74,538 was rejected by then Bahujan Samajwadi Party-led Mayawati government in 2011. We then approached Allahabad High Court in 2013 under the banner of Adivasi Vanvasi Mahasabha, and the court ordered a review, but the previous Akhilesh government did not do it. In 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power, and instead of reviewing, the Yogi Adityanath government started serving eviction notices to vacate forestland immediately. The eviction notices were not only issued in Mirzapur but also served in Sonbhadra, Chandauli, and Bundelkhand to harass tribals.”

Kapoor, based in Sonbhadra, working for the rights of tribals, added, “In 2017, we filed PIL in Allahabad High Court, and the court stayed eviction and ordered for review in 18 weeks on October 11, 2018. The review process began, but COVID-19 stopped everything. It resumed again post-pandemic, but the harassment continued,” he alleged.

On November 15, 2022, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited Sonbhadra and promised to give the land title to the adivasis, but nothing seemed to be working on the ground.

All India Peoples’ Front will launch Bhoomi Adhikar Abhiyan, where they will campaign door-to-door in Sonbhadra, Mirzapur region, to implement FRA.

Around 45,000 adivasis of at least 52 villages spread over 22 panchayats in the Rajhaua forest at Manikpur block of Bundelkhand’s Chitrakoot district were served with eviction notices because their villages are located in Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary (a sub-division of the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary in Bihar), which came into existence in 1980. NewsClick has reported from the ground during the 2022 Assembly elections.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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