New Delhi, Nov. 2: Ten months after the Forest Rights Act was passed in Parliament, the government is yet to notify the act. In the meantime, forest officials and policemen continue to evict tribals and forest dwellers, often brutally, allege activists.

While the UPA government, which passed the act amidst claims that it was concerned about the welfare of the tribals, elitist conservationists have raised worries about destruction of Indian forests in order to stall the act without understanding the rights of the tribals and forest dwellers.

Activists who are fighting for tribal and forest dwellers rights point out that the best forests in India exist where tribals and forest dwellers have control over the land and where they reside. According to the forest survey of India 2003, 60 per cent of the forest exists where tribals live. It shows that they have managed to conserve the forests better than others, said Campaign for Survival and Dignity spokesperson Shankar Gopalakrishnan.

He said, "The Forest Rights Act is not a land distribution measure that will wipe out forests. It is intended to address the failure to record people's rights during the process of declaring government forests, many of which often are not forests at all." He explained, "To this day 82 per cent of Madhya Pradesh's forest blocks have not been surveyed, and 60 per cent of India's national parks have not completed the recording of rights. Millions of people have lost their lands and their livelihoods during this seizure of resources by the British Empire and post-Independence governments. Till today they live under extreme oppression, facing daily harassment, violence and extortion."

Interestingly, the Tiger Task Force called it "a completely illegal and unconstitutional land acquisition programme", the then scheduled castes and scheduled tribes commissioner, in his 29th report, said, "The criminalisation of the entire communities in the tribal areas is the darkest blot on the liberal tradition of our country."

The Congress party was planning to use the passage of this act to show their concern for the tribal people in the Gujarat elections but with the unnecessary delay, the elections are already scheduled to be held in December and the act is nowhere near being notified. In a statement issued by the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, which has continued its fight for the rights of the marginalised people of the forests, said, "The Polavaram dam is going to destroy thousands of hectares of forest, and the inhuman salwa judum campaign in Chhatisgarh is opening huge areas to mining."

© Copyrights 2006 Asian Age.