(23/07/2019) Millions of adivasis and other traditional forests dwellers submitted memorandums to the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, Ministry fo Tribal Affairs through their district administration authorities and demanded that their rights are recognised through effective implementation of Forest Rights Act and Forest Rights Act (Amendment) Bill 2019 is withdrawn immediately.
Various social movements and organizations protested at the Block, Taluk, District and State Level administrative headquarters expressing their anger and disappointment for the shoddy manner in which the State governments and Central Governments are dealing with the implementation of the Forest Rights Act.
The protest demonstrations were held in Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh respectively.
This nation-wide action happened in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on February 13th asking for eviction of millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest-dwelling communities, since their claims under the FRA have been rejected. After the countrywide protests against this ruling, at the intervention of the Union government, the Supreme Court amended and stayed it till 10th July 2019. Using the SC ruling, the forest department is yet pushing people out of their lands, destroying their farm fields and several such instances have been reported since then. The Supreme Court is due to hear the different petitions on 24th July 2019.
The memorandums submitted to the Authorities demanded that the government :
Implement the FRA in its true spirit to rectify the historic injustice done to the Adivasis and other forest dwelling communities.
Must treat all ‘Rejected Claims” under FRA as Suo Moto Appeals and these claims should be carefully reviewed at the Gram Sabha, SDLC and DLC levels.
Make no attempts to evict any tribal household from the forest areas until the above process is completed.
Must issue relevant advisories to all the District Collectors and concerned officials on the above.
Parallel attempts to amend the Indian Forest Act or formulate new forest policies must be suspended immediately.
