Tribal

Forest Rights Act: Implications of Jhumias of Tripura Dr. Amitabha Sinha Department of A &A Economics Tripura University Introduction: It is a universally accepted proposition today that the right of the tribal shifting Cultivators of Tripura is related to the forests and policies followed by the Government. The objective of the paper is to assess the impact of Schedule Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 notified on 1st January 2008 on the jhumias of Tripura. The paper is divided in four sections. Section I deals with a description of scheduled Tribes of Tripura. Section II provides a brief sketch of the shifting cultivation of Tripura. Section III presents the major features of Forest Rights Act. Section IV presents a few suggestions and concluding remarks. Section I The trible population of Tripura is around 31% of the total population according to 2001 Census. It is possible to divide the Trible population of Tripura into three categories for policy purposes. The first category consists of Tribles who are indigenous to the State. They are Tripuris, Reangs, Jamatias, Noatias, Koloi, Rupini, and Murasing. In the second category are the tribes who have a major presence in the neighbouring states of Tripura. They are: Lushai, Kuri, Halam, Mogs and Chakmas . Also, Garo, Khasis, Lepchas and Bhutias fall in this category. In the third category belong the tribes who have come from main land India. They are: Munda, Santan, Orang and Bhils. It should be noted that the Reangs are classified as “Primitive Tribal group”. A large number of Reangs are wholly dependent on Jhum cultivation. This classification of tribes is helpful in two ways. First, it indicates the difference among the Tribes of Tripura in terms of their socio-economic development. The Reangs have been identified to be the most primitive. Reangs are involved in shifting cultivation in a great number. This is not true for the tribes in the third category like the Bhils. Bhils who were brought to Tripura mainly for workinging as labourers in Tea plantations. This diversity in occupational pattern is highlighted by the threefold classification of the tribes made in the present paper.

Second, the threefold classification highlights the importance of community specific development programmes. There can be no universal approach to tribal development in the context of Tripura.

Section II Interface of Forests and Tribal life and culture in Tripura has a long history going back to time immemorial. Tribal communities in Tripura had practiced ‘jhum’ cultivation, which is based on clearing a forest area in a particular season. The community shifted from this plot of cultivated land to return to the same plot after many years. The numbers of years it took to come back to the same area for cultivation is often called a ‘jhum cycle’. When total population of the ‘jhumias’, i.e., the shifting cultivation was small and the track of forests they would roam around was relatively vast, the ‘jhum cycle’ was long of around 15 to 20 years. Since productivity of jhum cultivation depends on the quality of forests burned down to prepare the land for cultivation so if the period is long ‘jhum cycles’ the productivity of ‘jhum’ land was quite high. This helped the jhum based tribal economy not only to meet their needs for food but provided them a surplus which they could trade with the plains people to purchase good they could not produce like salt, dry fish and edible oil. In this manner the jhum based Tribal economy sustained itself for thousands of years. Since jhum cultivation is a multi-crop cultivation system, so the jhum economy did not only produce paddy but also vegetables, muster oil seeds, jute etc. The nonfood crops had been traded in considerable quantity in the period of long jhum cycles. However, all Tribal people of Tripura were not ‘jhumias’. One can broadly identify two types of Tribal communities is Tripura. One type is the jhum based Tribals (Tripuris, Jamatias and Reangs) who practice it even now. The other type had been brought to Tripura mainly in the plantations, especially tea plantations, from the main land India. Their socio-economic condition differs significantly from that of the jhumia. However, the practice of shifting cultivation become less and less productive as jhum cycles got shorter. This was due to population increase on the one hand. But equally important was the introduction of Forests Acts of the government which legally denied access to forests for the tribal communities in the ‘Reserved Forests’.

The outcome of growing population to feed on the one hand and shortage of jhum land on the other hand was shortening of the ‘jhum cycles’. Jhum cycles began to be shorter and shorter in Tripura and fell from 15 to 20 years cycles to 1 to 3 years cycles. These had two important consequences. One is falling productivity of jhum because the land lacked in nutrients due to shorter cycles. The other is the degradation of the forests. Frequent jhuming did not allow natural growth of forests which the earlier larger cycles could ensure. The lower productivity meant lower living standard for the jhumias. They became the poorest of the poor of the state. Their health deteriorated due to lack of food. They did not have good cloths to wear. The children suffered from malnutrition. The plight of the jhumias can only be seen to be believed. There are various schemes to resettle the jhumias of Tripura which were initiated from early 1950s.However, the number of jhumia households in Tripura is still quite considerable. The Department of Agriculture of Government of Tripura estimated from 2001 census that the number of jhumias in 2001 was 297000. Unfortunately various government departments have different figures. According to DFO, Forests Department of the government of Tripura, the jhumia population is estimated to be 102,269 for Dhalai District alone in the year 2006. The number of jhumia families was 20664 in Dhalai. If it is assumed that each jhumia family cultivates on the average 1 hectare land than more than 20,000 hectare or about 10% of reserved forest area of the District is affected by jhum cultivation per year. In the case of North Tripura District , the area affected is around 28% of the forests land. This assumes around 33000 jhumias in North Tripura District. This indicates the environmental consequences of jhum cultivation in the period of shortened Jhum Cycles. Section III Before discussing the major features of Forest Rights Acts, 2006, one may look at the historical aspects of forests acts in Tripura very briefly. Indian Forest Act of 1927 was adopted by the government of India in 1947. It remains the basic Act for forests management in India. When Tripura merged with the Indian Union in 1949 the Act became effective for the state also. Tripura attained statehood in 1972. The government of Tripura has notified various rules under this Act. The 1927 Act (Chapter II-1o) was

hot total oblivious to the needs of the shifting cultivations and recognized the need for granting them certain land for settlement. However, in most cases the claims of the shifting cultivations were rarely given a legal recognition. Therefore, often the tribals continued to practice jhum even within reserved forests without any legal basis. It is in the context that one can study the major features of Forest Rights Act of 2006. The major features of the Act can be summarized as follows: 1. The Act recognises and vests forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling scheduled tribes and other international forest dwellers who have been residing in the forest area for three generations(75years) prior to 13.12.2005, i.e. from 13.12 1930. 2. The Act provides for the ceiling of occupation of forest land on the basis of the area under actual occupation and in no case exceeding an area of 4 hectare. 3. The Act recognises the right of ‘ownership access’ to collect use and dispose of minor forest produce. Minor forest produce shall include nontimber forest produce of plant origin including. a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) i) j) k) l)

bamboo brush wood stumps cane tussar cocoons honey wax lac kendu leaves medicinal plants herbs, roots and tubers,etc.

4. The Act recognises the right to in situ (i.e. original area) rehabilitation including alternative land in cases of illegal eviction or displacement without legal entitlement to rehabilitation prior to 13.12.2005.

5. The Act permits the government to divert forest land for the purpose schools, hospitals, anganwadis, roads, drinking water supply etc. 6. As per the Act, the gram sabha has been designated as the competent authority for initiating the process of determining the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights. In a letter to the chief ministers, the Prime Minister of India had called the Act as piece of “landmark legislation”. The introduction of the final Act had been through strong opposition from paper and pulp companies, forest bureaucracy and ‘conservation fundamentalist’. The Act proposes to correct the historical injustice meted out to the forest dwelling tribals. The Act also asserts that the rights so obtained go with the duties of sustainable use of forests and conservation of biodiversity. Section IV Recognising the rights of the forest-dwellers, allowing for their settlement in forest areas, providing school, health and other facilities like drinking water and electricity shall no doubt go a long way in improving the living standard of the forest-dwelling jhumias of Tripura. This process can be made more sustainable if education and skill brings about occupational diversification among them to remove the problem of over-dependence on land based resources. With expanding population, per capita availability of land is bound to decline for land-based people. This long-term perspective has to be taken in assessing the implications of Forest Right Act. References: 1. Deb Burman S.B.K : A study over the Jhum and Jhumia Rehabilitation in the Union Territory of Tripura, Government of Tripura, Agartala,1971. 2. Ramkrishnan Venkitesh: Hope and Fear, Frontline, Feb 29, 2008.