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By Kanchi Kohli
The Chhattisgarh Forest Development Corporation is to fell millions of trees in three districts of the state. Villagers claim that natural forests are being cleared to make way for commercial plantations. These forests are their lifeline
 April 29, 2006. Thousands of men and women gathered at village Tarabehra, Manendragarh block, Koriya district, Chhattisgarh. There were slogans, shouts of determination and protests. They had come together at a jan sunwai (public hearing) against the felling of natural forests around their villages by the Forest Development Corporation (FDC). Anger and frustration resounded in the village.
What was the issue at hand? What were these people protesting?
The appeal distributed at the public hearing by the Adivasi Adhikar Samiti, led by the women of the district, made it clear. This appeal in Hindi begins by saying that the Chhattigarh Forest Development Corporation (Chhattisgarh Rajya Van Vikas Nigam) has initiated forest felling on a large scale under its 10-year working plan. From December 5, 2005 till the date of the public hearing, approximately 100,000 trees have been cut in Koriya, Kwardha and Sarguja districts. The FDC has cut 22,477 trees in the Bharatpur and Manendragarh blocks of Koriya district alone. The appeal goes on to say that if the felling continues as stipulated in the working plan, around 2 crore trees will be cut in all the three districts combined.
But surely the Forest Development Corporation (FDC) had approval for its working plan? What were the objections of the people?
Local communities and activists have come out strongly against this felling by the FDC because it is taking place in natural forests with substantial tree density. They allege that the FDC has got clearance of its working plan from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests by stating that the forest in question is degraded. This clearance would allow the FDC to fell natural forests to pave the way for commercially valuable teak plantations.
For the FDC this is directly in line with what the state policy has to say. According to a resolution passed by the Forest and Culture Department, Government of Chhattigarh, on October 22, 2001 (No F 7-42/2001/FC) regarding the Chhattisgarh State Forest Policy 2001, "Irrigated and high input plantation of tree crops should be encouraged for meeting the timber demand of the state. The State Forest Development Corporation, FDC, should play a pivotal role in this endeavour."
Ironically, the same policy states that meeting the requirements of fuelwood, fodder, minor forest produce and small timber of the rural and tribal population with due regard to the carrying capacity of the forests would be one of the objectives of the state policy. And that is the bottom line of this entire issue.
The priorities of the local communities (primarily the Baiga and Pahadi Korwa tribes) stand in stark contrast to those of the FDC. For them the survival of the forests is directly linked with their own existence. They are directly dependant on the forests for various non-timber forest produce (NTFP), fuelwood and other requirements. The loss of their forests, they say, is the loss of their lives. They are furious that the same forest is being systematically marked and chopped, right before their eyes.
The villagers reacted almost immediately to the felling by the FDC. Since then, they have stood up to the contractors and officials and have managed to stop the felling for the last three to four months. In Kerabehara and many other areas the villagers have gone to the extent of not allowing the FDC to lift the wood that has been stacked up after being cut and kept for transportation.
There are several other dimensions to this issue, one of them being the kind of trees that are being cut. According to Samir Garg, an activist working in the area, "The working plan has stated that trees of religious importance, fruit-bearing trees and so on will not be cut by the FDC. However, this is not the case. For the tribals of the region, sal and mahua are of great cultural and religious significance on marriage and other occasions. However, the FDC has felled these trees as well."
 At the public hearing on April 29, 2006, a list was circulated which presented village-wise statistics of the trees felled by the FDC in Bharatpur and Manendragarh blocks of Koriya district during the period December 2005 to February 2006. The maximum felling according to this list is of sal trees, followed by fruit-bearing trees and trees of religious importance. The list also includes important trees like the tendu, mahua, chiraunji, all of which are of great importance to the communities of the region.
More information on this issue is also available in a note prepared by Sulakshana Nandi and Samir Garg who are working with the tribal communities in Koriya district: "About 30,000 tribal people in 72 villages are going to be directly affected by this operation. The FDC has already felled more than 15,000 trees including hundreds of fruit-bearing trees across 14 villages in Manendragarh and Bharatpur blocks of Koriya. Sal seed is one of the most important NTFPs in the area and along with it many other valuable species are also getting severely damaged..._?Neither the gram sabhas nor forest protection committees (FPCs) were consulted or even informed by the FDC before starting the felling even though the entire area comes under Schedule V of the Constitution."
Unfortunately, there was no 'official' participation at the April public hearing. The people were not surprised: all their earlier appeals have also gone unanswered.
But the voices were strong and the 12 appeals loud. The last of them states that forest felling is a clear violation of the right to live of the people of the area as it impacts both the livelihoods of the communities as well as the environment. It then demands that the felling be stopped and the working plan be cancelled. If the FDC wants to cultivate plantations then the State Forest Department has lakhs of acres of forest where this can be done, rather than cutting dense forests for the same.
The implementation of the working plan is likely to be resumed only after the monsoons now. But the threat looms as the approval exists on paper. It is unlikely that the Adivasi Adhikar Samiti is going to bow down easily - their life is at stake.
(Kanchi Kohli is with Kalpavriksh. This article has been written as part of an information dissemination service on forest and wildlife cases in the Supreme Court)
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InfoChange News & Features, May 2006
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