Discord over Reserve/Protected Forest in Manipur

Jajo Themson *

International Indigenous Peoples Day at Wakha Village :: Pix - Centre for Research and Advocacy, Manipur

As per the purpose of section 2(1) of the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), 1980, the term “Forest land” not only include forest as understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in the Govt. record irrespective of the ownership. According to United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) any trees and plant growing area which is above 1.24 acre is termed as forest. Trees in a forest must be at least 16 feet tall and the tree canopy must cover at least 10% of the land.

In India through the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976, forest and protection of wild Animals and Birds were transferred from state to Concurrent list. As such forest matter is under the Concurrent List under the 7th Scheduled of the Indian constitution.

Based on the Recorded Forest Area (RFA) of Manipur, there are 17,418 Sq km of forest in the state. In which, 1,467 Sq km is Reserve Forest, 4,171 Sq Km is Protected forest and 11,780 Sq km is Unclassified forest. Unfortunately, most of those forests in the tribal hill areas are community reserve forest, forest land belonging to clans and private owned under their customary land holding system which seems not maintained in the Govt. record. Each village owned them since the beginning of ages.

As per the WWF, 1.6 billion people depend on forest for food and fuel. Importance of forest may be generally considered as source of oxygen, shelter for many, jobs, water source, nourishment and fuel etc. Forest helps prevent erosion, enrich and conserve soil, controls land slide, flood, water cycle, rainfall, filtering pollutions and chemicals, carbon sink, agriculture, 80% a home to biodiversity and climate mitigation etc.

70 Million people worldwide including indigenous communities call forest a home. For the forest dwelling indigenous people, forest constitutes everything in terms of backbone of their livelihood and economy, socio-religious source, cultural basis, historical foundation and their identity as a human.

The indigenous communities understand and felt the necessity of forest conservation, reservation or protection. It is undeniable fact that they are those who are closely associated with forest, as such in one way they are expert in conserving forest and wild life.

But the rising main apprehension of the indigenous community is of being marginalised and their rights of ownership over their land, forest and resources being diluted in actual execution by forest department as reserve or protected forest. The same came to light at this stage when Govt plans to conserve them.

It seems there have been numerous procedural lapses and non-compliance of established rules. Declaration of Reserve or Protected Forest is one of the most controversial areas where so much contestation happened in the state. There are 37 reserve forests in Manipur state which were mostly declared in 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s and 1990’s.

Declaration of reserve or protected forests are to be carried out as per Rules provided in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, Manipur Forest Rules, 1971and development of Wildlife Sanctuary as per the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

As per the conditions established in the Manipur Forest Rules, 1971, several restrictions aew imposed for protection of reserve forests along with penalties. Prohibition includes- restricting jungle firing, Hunting & shooting and wounding of birds and animals, of pasturing cattle in forest, felling of trees totaling 45 numbers, girdling, pollarding or lopping of trees’ branches, no tree shall be wounded for collection of gum and resin, ban on removal of forest produce from protected forest, section 27 states the Chief Conservator of forest shall levy rates of royalty payable for each kind of forest produce removed from protected forest etc.

Forest department is authorized to give rights to the bona-fide villagers such as Grazing rights, Wood rights, Hunting rights,-cultivation rights,- jhuming rights etc. Section 29 prohibits lease of fishing rights in any river passing through a reserve or protected forest. Section 80 of chapter-XI prohibits the act of killing and capturing or netting or trapping of wild animals and birds.

Prohibition also imposed on killing of Wild animals. Further, the Chief Conservator of forest and the forest officer in-charge of the Divisions are empowered to evict summarily any person who occupies or continues to occupy reserve or protected forest land. Under the provision of this act and state Rules, houses of 337 families have been demolished in Manipur till 2022.

Understanding all such restrictions or prohibitions, the indigenous community people who originally owned forest land have high apprehension of victimization due to loss of rights and marginalization. This apprehension is the core reason why lot of protests occurred with critical questions if declarations of reserve or protected forest were done through genuine process.

Almost all the affected people become anti-reserve forest today for not consulting or their consent sought as per rules. This is the chief factor why there have been so much controversies and tussles in forest conservation regime.

Lack of proper proclamation and explanation of consequences of the proposed program at the time of declaration of reserve or protected forest to the forest land owners in spite of several negative impacts to be given to them was a huge blunder as well as it violated the point 2 of the conditions conferred upon the Forest Settlement Officer in the Manipur Forest Rules, 1971 under the India Forest Act, 1927.

Violations and procedural lapses

The nature of declaring reserve or protected forest in the state incited several hue and cry several giving direct threat to the indigenous communities who customarily owned such forest land since time immemorial.

They are being marginalised to a great extent affecting their survival means jeopardizing even their existence. Community people’s right to proper consultation was sidelined. In most of the rising cases of reserve or protected forest, no opportunities were given to communities to exercise their rights.

Failure of taking Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) is a violation as per provisions under section 4(2) of the FRA, 2006. The same also violated the section 19- rights of indigenous people enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Rights of the Indigenous People (UNDRIP) 2007 to take FPIC, section 3 of the same declaration- right to self determination and section 26 of right to land.

There are also violations of section 6(1) of FRA, 2006 that empowers the Gram Sabha/Village Assembly to pass resolution recommending its reservation. Section 4 (5) of the act also states that No member of a forest dwelling ST or other traditional forest dwellers shall be evicted or removed from forest land under their occupation till the recognition and verification procedures are complete.

There were violations in declaring all reserve or protected forest and Wilflife Sanctuary in Manipur after 1972 where the mandatory body Hill Area Committee (HAC) was not consulted.

The HAC of Manipur remarked that there have been evidences the prescribed procedures and rules have been tweaked in declaring reserve and protected forest areas in the State. All scheduled matters like reserve or protected forest and Wildlife Sanctuary required its consent under the Article 371 (C) of the Indian Constitution.

Like mentioned earlier, conservation of forest areas as reserve or protected forest is a very encouraging and suggestible program everyone accepts in the larger interest of fighting against the global climate change issues. But questions arose from different angles regarding holding of controlling power by Govt. department upon the land and forest of indigenous community.

As per the established forest rules, affected community people are bound to seek permission from forest Department in any access to the reserve or protected forest that virtually implicates ownership rights. There is a need of empowering indigenous communities in conserving forest or wild life.

Unless there are full cooperations of the communities, effective conservation may be futile because indigenous people are those who have been with the forest through generations. As such community-led conservation of forest is highly encouraged and assumed the best viable means. Marginalisation and uprooting the indigenous people in the name of forest and animal conservation is rude and illogical too.

Nine CSO bodies of Tamenglong district on 5/11/2024 made a joint declaration with key concerns asserting Reserve or protected forest & Wildlife sanctuary will give direct impacts on traditional livelihood, Displacement and loss of cultural heritage, Human-wildlife conflict, Lack of community right to consent, need of finding alternative conservation approach- demanding development of community-led conservation programs and also demanded proper consultation and seek consent of the community.

In conclusion it is suggested that, indigenous people who are expert and have been with the forest over generations should be empowered in-stead of imposing upon them by force in conserving forest or wild animals. Non-inclusion of indigenous communities on such conservation programs happens to be a huge mistake.

The Manipur Forest Rules, 1971 needs to be either modified or revoked as it was established for just one sided approach is not human-friendly where the forest land owners are being pushed towards landlessness in their own land.

Until and unless necessary correction is made, there would be never ending issues due to complaint and protest from the forest host communities which will ultimately hamper the forest and wild life conservation regime in the larger interest.