Kabir Suman, urban balladeer and Trinamool Congress MP, has answered the question in his own manner, through music and verse. In his latest album, he sings: Jangal tumi kaar/Swarashtra mantranalaya naki beniya aar thikedaar/Jangal tumi kaar/Sarkari rifle naki daler paonadaar…” (Oh forest, who do you belong to?/The Union Home Ministry or to businessmen and contractors?/To government’s rifles or the party mafia?). This number is titled Chhatradharer Gaan (The Song of Chhatradhar).
Tribals and others had organised a protest at Jantar Mantar late last year to force the ministry of tribal affairs to extend the deadline for filing ownership claims on forest land. But their entreaties had fallen on deaf ears. The Forest Rights Act has not achieved any of the goals it was meant to – notably, the implementation of rules notified on January 1, 2008.
In West Bengal, 38 organisations of tribals and forest dwellers and the Nagarik Mancha, a social rights group, has approached the high court of Kolkata to intervene. Naba Dutta, Nagarik Mancha general secretary, told TSI, “According to the Act, the village-level committee, formed in Gram Sabhas, will take the decision on forest dwellers’ applications for rights. No committees were formed and the forest dwellers, basically tribals, are being deprived.”
He added: “Under the Indian Forest Act, forests belong to the Union Government, not the states. State goverments have to get Supreme Court clearance in all cases where encroachment of forest land has taken place. Even the Jindals had to get a SC nod as 500 acres of forest land was within the proposed area of their factory.” The divide shows no signs of ending.
Tribals and others had organised a protest at Jantar Mantar late last year to force the ministry of tribal affairs to extend the deadline for filing ownership claims on forest land. But their entreaties had fallen on deaf ears. The Forest Rights Act has not achieved any of the goals it was meant to – notably, the implementation of rules notified on January 1, 2008.
In West Bengal, 38 organisations of tribals and forest dwellers and the Nagarik Mancha, a social rights group, has approached the high court of Kolkata to intervene. Naba Dutta, Nagarik Mancha general secretary, told TSI, “According to the Act, the village-level committee, formed in Gram Sabhas, will take the decision on forest dwellers’ applications for rights. No committees were formed and the forest dwellers, basically tribals, are being deprived.”
He added: “Under the Indian Forest Act, forests belong to the Union Government, not the states. State goverments have to get Supreme Court clearance in all cases where encroachment of forest land has taken place. Even the Jindals had to get a SC nod as 500 acres of forest land was within the proposed area of their factory.” The divide shows no signs of ending.
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