In the brave new world that defines India today, if your
biometrics fail to match those in the Aadhaar database, you don’t get your
rations, and could even die.[1] Similarly, if the
government fails to recognise your claims on forest land, not only do you not
get the title to the land you have been cultivating for generations, but you
even stand the risk of being evicted. Again and again, we see that it is the
most poor and vulnerable who are at risk of being penalised for government
failures.
When the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, generally referred to as the
Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed, there was hope that it would at last usher
in some change in the undeclared civil war that has existed between the forest
department and forest dwellers over the last century or more. The Act aimed to
redress the ‘historical injustice to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes’ by
recognising their property rights to land, as well as non-timber forest
produce, and the community right of control and management which was
appropriated by the forest department. However, recent events show that there
is little likelihood of that, with the looming threat of Supreme Court mandated
evictions and a highly problematic 2019 Forest Act that is proposed to replace
the 1927 Indian Forest Act.
