Children of the Forest
In un-electrified hamlets where the day dies with the setting sun, television sets and table fans which were given as freebies before elections are kept apart in homes and venerated as objects from a futuristic past.
Röhan Abraham
Throughout the ages, man-animal conflicts have been the accepted norm in the wilderness, but inside the boundaries of the Meghamalai Reserve Forest, the laws of the jungle have been rewritten, with the men in uniform antagonizing their tribal counterparts in an effort to preserve the flora and fauna that call the forest their home.
On July 26, 2016, as a group of tribal women were returning to their hamlets after collecting honey and other forest produce, they were allegedly stopped and made to strip naked while the forests guards ransacked their meager belongings and made off with their day’s work in scouring the forest for their next meal.
The incident sparked outrage among the local community with tribal leaders demanding action to be taken against the guards on duty for outraging the modesty of their womenfolk. Many political parties also jumped on to the bandwagon, firing salvos against the government for its inaction in suspending the delinquent patrolmen.
Villagers who reside in the forest predominantly belong to either the scheduled caste or tribal communities. These two groups comprise a quarter of the district’s demographic, and therefore are electorally important to the arithmetic of the state’s politics.
O. Panneerselvam, who was sworn in as Chief Minister after serving multiple stints as the regent to the throne when Jayalalitha was indisposed due to ill health and faced judicial scrutiny, was elected from the constituency of Bodinayakkanur, in Theni district.
Atrocities against the underprivileged denizens of the forest highlight the dichotomy in the priorities of the local administration who leverage support by giving sops and doling out freebies at the time of elections, but cede power to the forest authorities under whose jurisdiction lies many a tribal hamlet, once the poll verdict is out.
The metallic jaws of the vertical turnstile at the check point are manned by the forest guards who use their better judgment in regulating the villagers’ contact with the externalities of life beyond the realms of the forest. Quite often, greasing the palms of sentinels on duty is a means of acquiring a passport to the outside world.
“Every time a truck containing the silk cotton we cultivate has to pass the check post to reach the market at Cumbum-Theni, the guards on duty either try to block the vehicle or demand money. Sometimes, it would be 100 rupees, sometimes, more. They know the going rate for our produce. If we are lucky, we are granted a safe passage without much hassle,” said Arumugam, whose home falls inside the Meghamalai forest reserve.
The Indian Forest Act of 1927, which has seen subsequent amendments and the introduction of new sections, is a holdover from the nation’s colonial past. The legislation which predates independence was codified in law with the intention of strengthening the British stranglehold on the wealth of natural resources contained in forests across the subcontinent.
However, over the years, the law has been subverted by the powers that be, to grant environmental clearances to projects that augur well in creating what global financial institutions call ‘good investment climate’. Vedanta’s proposal to mine bauxite in Odisha is a prime example of the government selectively relaxing the norms for clearances by arm twisting the NGT (National Green Tribunal) into compliance.
The proposed mine would have been located inside an Elephant Reserve which is adjacent to the Niyamgiri Reserved forest. It is only the efforts of the local tribal people that have nixed the project. In other parts of the country like the Meghamalai forest in Theni, the administration’s obsession with showing an increase in forest cover, or the population of endangered species such as tigers, has taken a toll on the lifestyle of the indigenous people who have been carried in the womb of the forest since time immemorial.
The people who live in hamlets situated inside the forest are captives in their own land. “I was born in this village and so was my mother and those who went before her. The government has appropriated our mother and disowned us,” said Malarvizhi, a septuagenarian woman who still leads an active life, chasing her goats and grandchildren across the shrubbery that dots the dusty landscape.
The patta, or deed for the land they currently live on was issued before independence and has been handed over from one generation to the next. However, their existence has been encapsulated within the confines of the forest and since the law prohibits them from felling trees for cultivating crops, they have been forced to live off the meager forest produce.
Purchasing rice and lentils from markets outside is a luxury they can ill afford, and only when the cash crops such as the silk cotton which they illicitly cultivate are ripe for harvest, does the dream of two square meals materialize in reality.
It is ironical that even after many years have gone by after independence, villagers in Theni continue to live in a time warp. The nation is not in the midst of a famine. Warehouses in the state are argosies of plenty. Tamil Nadu is a pioneer state in implementing welfare schemes which have often been derided for being populist at the risk of the state’s budgetary deficit running into the red. But their implementation remains sketchy in forest districts.
A parallel government with its jurisdiction concentric to the ambit of the state administration has been established. The levers of power in the deep state within the reserve forests are operated by those in uniform. Villages inside the reserve forest are excluded from the welfare schemes of the state government.
In un-electrified hamlets where the day dies with the setting sun, television sets and table fans which were given as freebies before elections are kept apart in homes and venerated as objects from a futuristic past. Ration cards were issued but have not been updated since 2009. Additional leaflets were stapled on to the booklets whose validity had expired in 2009.
The penetration of financial services by mainstream banks in the villages of uphill Theni has been abysmally poor. “Moneylenders are the main problem. They chase greater profits by tempting villagers with capital, which they ultimately use in exploiting government resources by encroaching on forest land,” said Khaja Moideen, who is the Forest Ranger of the Meghamalai Wildlife Division. He emphasized that it is the villagers who end up paying for the greed of the moneylenders since they run afoul of the law in attempting to pay off loans.
Moreover, land holdings are shrinking since land, being a finite resource is divided among all the legal heirs of a family. Over time, fragmentation of held property has prompted villagers to encroach upon forest land to ensure that cultivation of cash crops remains economically viable.
“On the one hand, we are being blamed for human rights violations by activists and NGOs while on the other, it is the forest officer who will be held responsible by the Environment Ministry for failing to meet the targets set annually. Preserving the population of endangered wildlife species and afforestation programmes to replenish forest cover are key goals of the department,” added Moideen, who indicated that his office was damned if they took action against encroachment by the villagers for cultivation, and damned if they didn’t, by their superiors in the service.
The Forest Department estimates that each silk cotton tree will produce yield worth anything between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 a year. Therefore, it is their argument that reports of forced migration to towns have no basis in fact since villagers have it good within the forest, and earn much more than they would, working as coolies in nearby towns.
When asked about the molestation of tribal women that happened in July, 2016, Moideen refused to comment. The disproportionate use of force to enforce the new order of the jungle has created disenchantment with the forest officials, who in turn are at loggerheads with the state government for standing in the way of populist schemes that promise to reap electoral rewards.
This tripartite disconnect has manifested itself in other parts of the country which are reeling under the scepter of the Naxalist movement which is aimed at the violent overthrow of the institutions that constitute the Indian state.
The unsympathetic approach of the forest officials has precipitated the situation and unless those entrusted with safeguarding the nation’s natural resources tread a more humane path, the simmering discontent is likely to spill over and transform into a full blown conflict between the indigenous people and belligerent state institutions.
The collateral damage incurred if forests were to be converted into bloody battlefields, could be immense.
