Imphal, April 17: Reacting to the remarks of PCCF on the activities of the Forest Department as a deliberate attempt to mislead the ignorant tribals, the Working Group on Land and Natural Resources has categorically stated that it is surprising that PCCF who is himself a tribal has denied the processes of seizing 'our land and forest' by the Government of India.

The fact is that over the past few decades, there has been a gradual acceleration process of bringing all forests in the country under centralised control.

Forest law was earlier a State subject which has been now brought under concurrent list from 1975.Thus all forest and large areas of what is actually not even forest have been brought under the direct control of the Centre and the Supreme Court, convenor of Working Group on Land and Natural Resources Seth Shatsang said in a statement.

The statement pointed out that in 1980, the Forest Conservation Act was passed prohibiting any non-forestry activities in the forest except with the permission of the Central Government.

This was the first step in centralising control, but this was applied only in the mainland India, the statement said.

The statement further pointed out that again in 1996, the Supreme Court issued an interim order according to which the word 'forest' in the Forest Conservation Act should be understood as (1) the dictionary meaning of forest, meaning any land with trees on it and (2) any land referred in any official record as 'forest' regardless of whether or not it has forest on it, and this as to be applied irrespective of the ownership of the land.

The Supreme Court has also passed new orders stating that any diversion of forest land now has to be approved by the Court itself and a Centrally empowered committee has been instituted in which DG Forest is a member.

Following the Supreme Court order, the Forest Departments have begun using these orders to seize lands, In the mainland, this has caused havoc for tribals and forest dwelling communities, culminating in the 2002 eviction drive in which more than 3,00,000 families were brutally driven out from their houses across mainland India (Indigenous Peoples and Environment Series), it noted, adding that the same process is now being adopted in the North East.

The above laws were of no relevance if it were not from the Supreme Court order of 1996.So the Forest Dept in the State obviously cannot directly enforce this legal absurdity and evict all the communities using and controlling these lands.

However, they have begun steps toward gradually increasing their powers over our land.

The Forest Dept has been claiming cross of rupees from the BRTF to compensate for the 'Lost Forest' for building of roads in the hills districts of Manipur following the Supreme Court's order ignoring the fact that the forest lands belong to the tribal communities (MLR Act and LR Act, 1960 subsection 2 of Section 1) .

JFM glorified so much by the PCCF is deceitfully a ploy to deprive tribal ownership of land is clearly indicated in the MoU written in a language alien to our village chiefs.

The remarks of PCCF that 'in no way JFM stands against traditional rights of the people' is an absolute contradiction to all the clauses 1-17 of the MoU and whereas personal statements will be null and void in course of the time, the MoU shall be enforceable.

There is no coherence in between the statement of the PCCF and his action nor the State Forest Dept seem to make any distinction between revenue land in the mainland India and non-revenue land in the hills of Manipur in applying forest laws which is unfortunate.

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