The STOTD bill stipulates providing four hectares of land to 40 lakh tribals and forest dwellers living in and around forests. Its implementation is going to ensure the biggest land grab operation in Indian history with 1.60 crore hectares of forest land up for grabs.

The Special Environment Committee set up by the Supreme Court has pointed out that forest cover with 70 per cent density is down to 51,285 sq km (1.56 per cent of the country’s geographic coverage). Another 26,245 sq. km of forests with 40 per cent density has been lost in the last two years.

The former director of Project Tiger, Mr P.K. Sen, points out, "Distribution of forest land to the tribals means the end of the forests and the vast bio-diversity and animal life that has existed here for millions of years."

Mr Sen wonders how the gram sabhas n Turn to Page 2

of every village can be assigned the task of giving land pattas to lakhs of tribals and forest dwellers. "Do the gram sabhas possess the mechanism or the means to undertake such a gigantic task? Gram sabhas reflect the vested interests of different political parties. They are not independent functionaries, as our political leaders would like us to believe," he said.

Vandana Shiva, part of the expert committee that drafted the original STOTD bill, is surprised at its present shape. "The bill has been hijacked by vested interests who are now in the process of wanting to demarcate pattas for the tribal communities. In its original form, it was mean to recognise that tribals were the original inhabitants of the forests and should not be treated as encroachers. Today, it has been mutated so that use rights become tradable rights in order that the land mafia can grab this forest land," Ms Shiva claimed.

Ms Shiva is convinced that a government grabbing farmers’ lands to create SEZs has subverted the bill so that pristine forest land also ends up becoming a marketable commodity to be used by the builder lobby.

Defending the tribal bill, CPI(M) leader and parliamentarian Brinda Karat, one of its key votaries, said, "The bill is not a land distribution programme. It’s not a question of where is the land — wherever the land be — the land pattas must be given to the tribals so that they are not at the mercy of the forest department." Ms Karat cites the example of how tribals have been denied access to even minor forest produce. "In Orissa, there are 11,000 criminal cases against tribals for ‘stealing’ minor forest produce whose value was less than Rs 100," she said, adding that the largest usurper of forest land is the government.

The special committee looking into environmental issues, Ms Karat said, highlighted how in recent years 6.7 lakh hectares of prime forest land was diverted for mining and other non-forestry purposes.

The forest department has brought out a report to show that 50 districts, which have a dense forest cover, are largely tribal-dominated areas. "This goes to prove that tribals are not destroyers of forests," she said. The forest mafia, in connivance with forest officials and big companies signing MOUs to set up industries in these areas, are the biggest encroachers, Ms Karat claimed.

But Ms Karat also admitted that in the long term the bill could help redress the problems of the landless. She said, "In the neo-liberal age the absence of a land reform programme by the government has meant that a large number of landless people outside the forests are facing great difficulties. This (bill) will help ameliorate their position."

The forest department is also to blame for this sorry state of affairs, she said. They have been taking over non-forest land and declaring it forest land as a means of harassing the tribal population. During 2002-03, several lakh hectares of forest land was increased on the books even though it had no forest cover.

Mr P.K. Sen, along with other conservationists, finds this sudden concern for tribal welfare is hogwash. "In Jharkhand alone, the Santhal Development Agency receives an annual grant of Rs 700 crores for tribal welfare. The government pumps thousands of crores into tribal welfare schemes. This money has seldom reached the poor tribals. How come none of these Left leaders have ever expressed concern for them in the past," Mr Sen says.

Conservationists are also skeptical about the satellite data on the re-greening of India being released by government agencies. "The government is duping the public when it says that forest cover is increasing. There is a huge difference between an artificially regenerated forest and a natural forest. The government should be concerned about the steady annihilation of our natural forests," he said.

A senior official in the ministry of environment and forests points out that the passing of the tribal bill has ensured the complete dilution of the recently passed Wildlife Protection Act.

He pointed out that the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), set up to check wildlife crimes like poaching, lacks teeth because the tribal bill emphasises that the WCCB cannot interfere with the rights of the tribals. Except for voluntary relocation, no ST or forest dweller can be resettled. Reallocation will be allowed only in cases of "irreversible damage" and the right to draw boundaries in the core buffer zones has been invested with the gram sabhas the official adds.

Wildlife activist Valmiki Thapar insists that the whole concept of tribals coexisting with wildlife and especially tigers is completely, utopian. "The government needs to put aside a small percentage of forest land for tigers. It could be one per cent or two per cent of the land mass — the remaining 98 per cent can be kept for people, including tribals. But to blame the presence of nature reserves for inequality and poverty is incorrect," Mr Thapar added.