10 years later, forest rights elude TN tribals

It's been over 10 years since the Scheduled Tribes and the Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 — popularly known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) — that aims to protect the rights of tribals and other forest dwellers, came into effect. But, for the forest dwellers in Tamil Nadu, the whole measure seems to be only on paper, with the government failing to distribute even a single title deed.

The FRA sought to correct the historical injustice done to the traditional forest-dwelling communities by conferring rights to hold and own forest land where they traditionally lived and cultivated. But while states across the country including neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala went ahead with the FRA implementation and distributed 17.91 lakh title deeds covering 1.37 crore acres of forest lands till March this year as per the Ministry of Tribal Welfare data, the Tamil Nadu government is still hiding behind excuses.

The Madras High Court had on April 30, 2008, passed an interim order prohibiting the issue of title deeds to the tribal communities in response to a PIL that contested the Constitutional validity of the Act. It took another eight years to vacate the court stay. The Supreme Court on February 2 last year set aside the interim order of the High Court, accepting the Ministry of Tribal Affairs' argument that when the FRA is being implemented across the entire country, there is no need for such an order to restrict its operation in only one state.

"Fifteen months have passed since the Apex Court vacated the stay but not even a single person got a title deed in Tamil Nadu till date. It only shows the government's lack of interest in the tribals and forest dwellers welfare," said A Ranganathan, convenor, Tribal Association for Fifth Schedule Campaign. He pointed out that when the Apex Court order came, the state government claimed that out of the 21,781 claims filed by the people, it had 3,723 titles ready for distribution. "What happened to those titles? Why are they refusing to distribute them?" he asked.

T Venkatesan, who hails from Nachamalai in Jawadhu Hills in the backwards Tiruvannamalai district, applied for the title deed in 2008 along with 35 others person in his tribal hamlet. He said that after the Madras High Court directed the district authorities to process their application, the Revenue officials measured the 116 acres of land claimed by them and prepared the title deeds. However, he said he got a communication from the District Collector saying the title deeds are ready, but would be distributed only after the final order. "The Supreme Court has passed its order but we did not get our land rights," he said, adding often they would be threatened by the forest officials for cultivating there.

A senior official in the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department said only after the stay was vacated last year, the process for verification of the claims began. "We have got over 30,000 claims. After the claims are cleared by the grama sabha, it will be verified in the sub-divisional level committee headed by the Revenue Divisional Officer and then by the Collector headed district-level committee. Then the process of land measurement will begin. It is a time consuming process," the official said.