When the Forest Rights Act really delivers

When centuries of discontent weighs like a heavy bondage over the hills and valleys of our nation, the question of reverting to the ancient way of collective ownership of land appears to be a concept as alien as individual ownership was when the British slapped the idea of individual control over control over large parts of the country.

A hundred and sixty years of maltreatment is what a small group of citizens are fighting against, and it has not been an easy fight. Not easy for most adivasis are not really equipped to understand this new law, till date, they have still not understood the old ones, ones that were passed in 1865 and thereafter.

What then makes FRA different and why are there so many polarizing opinions about it?

FRA came after decades of neglect and disempowerment and in spite of being around for almost two decades now, it still has a long way to go. Powerful forces stand against it. Forces that are inexorably biased against a section of their countrymen and women as they feel that FRA will lead to the end of the forest as they know it.

But do we really know our forests? Do we really expect our forests to be pristine inviolate regions where no human can set foot without permission. Or do we have the wherewithal to discern the subtle difference between a forest only for animals or a forest where all living beings live together.

Do we want a forest were miles upon miles of eucalyptus plantations dominates the landscape and in the name of biodiversity, all we have are endless development plans that devastates large tracts of our precious forest land for the purpose of a greater good, one where industrialists can, sitting in the comfort of their offices, decide the future of millions without accepting an iota of responsibility for their fate.

Or do we want a forest where miles upon miles of land is interspersed with small agricultural plots, covered as they are by endless groves of mahua that no right thinking adivasi will cut in his lifetime. A forest where biodiversity is present everywhere, not just in books.

The Forest Rights act is an attempt to right the wrongs that society willfully or inadvertently unleased upon the most silent stakeholders in our nation’s conscience. After more than a century of disempowering adivasis and selectively reducing their right to enter the forest which to most is but a second home, the act promises to undo some of the damage.

It looks to gently allow adivasis to exercise their right to their land whether in the form of individual access to land for agriculture or community ownership. 

The challenge is whether we will let it be a good law or someone starts misusing it again.