Opening the Gates for India’s Keepers of Forests

Authors

Prashant Narang, Tarini Sudhakar, Gauri Bansal

India’s state forest departments continue to create barriers for forest dwellers to earn a decent wage through the collection and distribution of Minor Forest Produce (MFP). Despite having rights over the forest lands, they have to jump through various administrative and bureaucratic hoops to transport MFP.

Although introduced as an administrative requirement in the colonial era, transit permits are still enforced to regulate access to forest land by forest dwellers and villagers. It makes it difficult to gather produce from forest land and hampers the economic growth of the forest-dwelling community.

This law prevents forest dwellers from harnessing the true potential of the land they have lived on for generations. For forest dwellers in India, the collection and sale of MFP is a primary source of income, but unfortunately, the law has not made it easy for them to earn their money.

All the Forest Acts in India

1878

The Indian Forest Act, 1878

Categorised forests into reserved and protected

1927

The Indian Forest Act, 1927

Categorised forests and produce and introduced Transit Permits and MFP

1976

The Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976

Moved forests from State List to Concurrent List

1992

The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 and The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992

Institutionalised Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and made Gram Sabhas the nucleus of self governance

1996

Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA)

Ensures self-governance through Gram Sabhas in Fifth Schedule Areas listed under the Constitution

2006

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006

Grants tribal autonomy and financial empowerment through title, use, and management rights

2012

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Amendment Rules, 2012

Transit Permits can be issued but only by Gram Panchayats and its constituent bodies

Overview of the laws governing access to forest land

For over a century, colonial systems have dominated the governance of forestry in India. The struggle for forest dwellers began in 1878

1878: The Britishers enacted the Indian Forest Act, 1878. It outlined the state’s control over forests by dividing them between reserved forests, protected forests, and village forests. This Act, ensured that a forest dweller or villager could not access reserved forests. Any violation of the law would result in fines and even imprisonment.

1927: Almost 50 years later, forest dwellers still found no solace when the Indian Forest Act, 1927 retained the distinction between reserved and protected forests, which once again prohibited them from accessing forest land. The Act also introduced the term MFP and the need to obtain transit permits to move MFP outside the forest area.

2005: The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, better known as the Forest Rights Act or FRA, was introduced by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA).

The FRA is an important piece of legislation that grants forest-dwelling communities their long-overdue rights to the land that they have lived in for generations. It also provided an empowered authority for conservation, the Gram Sabha.

Gram Sabhas gained the authority to determine the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights that may be given to forest-dwellers.

In 2006, FRA granted forest-dwelling communities rights to “dispose of minor forest produce”. However, state Forest Departments continued to impose the requirement of Transit Permits under state laws to transport the produce outside the forest for trading.

In 2012, the MoTA amended the Forest Rights Rules to give Gram Sabhas or the Committees constituted by Gram Sabhas the power to grant Transit Permits. The amended rule said:

“The State Governments should exempt movement of all MFPs from the purview of the transit rules of the State Government and, for this purpose, the transit rules be amended suitably. Even a transit permit from Gram Sabha should not be required. Imposition of any fee/charges/royalties on the processing, value addition, marketing of MFP collected individually or collectively by the cooperatives/ federations of the rights holders would also be ultra vires of the Act.”

But many state Forest Departments continue to control the issuance of Transit Permits, even today.

Forest-dwelling communities face further restrictions through state monopoly over nationalized MFP items such as Mahua, Sal seeds, and Kendu leaves. Interestingly, most state Forest Departments earn more from MFP than timber. For example, in

2010, Andhra Pradesh earned INR 82 crore from MFP, but only INR 43 crore from timber.

However, this goes against the FRA by retaining control with government agencies rather than the forest dwellers.

Conflict of Interest

There is still a conflict of interest between the Ministry of Enviroment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and the MoTA

The Indian Forest Act, 1927, still in implementation by the MoEF&CC requires the use of Transit Permits and retains control of MFP.

It also authorises interference from state Forest Departments for approval of Transit Permits.

The Forest Rights Act implemented by the MoTA, grants autonomy to forest dwellers and allows access to MFP for its collection and sale.

It created Gram Sabha, a body responsible for determining the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights.

Through a joint communication it was later clarified that there should be greater synergy between MoTA and MoEF&CC at the central level and between Forest and Tribal Welfare Departments at the state level.

But more than 150 grassroot organizations believe this may undermine the spirit of the FRA and increase the Forest Department’s intereference in regulating forests.

Join us in our call to action for decentralized and deregulated access to forests so that the original keepers of forests can achieve economic upliftment.

Even today, not all forest dwellers are as fortunate as those in Kalahandi, with their livelihoods still at the mercy of the state machinery that circumvents the FRA and scuttles the trade of MFP. Realizing the economic potential for forest dwellers requires the implementation of forest laws and the vision they espouse. The major challenge that lies ahead is reconciling the interests of the state and forest dwellers, to ensure that the conversion of forests from habitats to economic resources holds the rights of their owners at the center stage.

Removing barriers to access such as Transit Permits, liberalizing MFP trade, and ensuring congruence between central and state laws would not just empower the original keepers of forests but also broaden their scope of autonomy. A de facto transfer of decision-making powers and control over resources will usher in a new era of change for forest dwellers and bring about their economic upliftment.

Authors

Dr Prashant Narang

Dr Prashant Narang heads the Research Team at Centre for Civil Society (CCS). His most significant contributions at CCS include ease of doing business reforms recommendations and the Street Vendor Compliance Index. Having written journal papers on the legal sector reforms and the Right to Education Act, his current interest areas are the rule of law, institutions, and the constitutional right to carry on business and trade in India.

Tarini Sudhakar

Tarini Sudhakar is pursuing her Masters in Economics and is keen to explore the intersection of law and economics. She worked as a researcher at Centre for Civil Society on education, environment, and agriculture policy and studied History from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi.

Gauri Bansal

Gauri is a recent Political Science graduate from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University. Her research interests include political psychology and environmental, social and corporate governance.