Madhya Pradesh: ‘Organized Encroachments’ In MP Forests Cause Massive Deforestations, Ethnic Conflicts
The menace was spread to forests in the districts of Jhabua, Khargone, Barwani, Burhanpur, and Khandwa over the past several years: Reports
BHOPAL: A serious ethnic conflict is brewing in the forests of Madhya Pradesh with a ‘cartel of land sharks’ patronizing encroachments in the jungles by certain tribal communities to taking undue advantage of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), reports reaching from various districts in the state said.
The land mafias are allegedly helping the particular tribal groups, the forest dwellers, migrate from their native places to create illegal settlements in the forests by cutting trees in another district to claim rights over the ‘encroached’ land under the FRA, a member of a forest committee in Burhanpur district told this newspaper on Monday.
Under the FRA, those settled in a forested area before December 2005 are entitled to get ‘patta’ of the land.
‘However, the cartel is bringing people of particular tribal communities, who usually live in forest and shy of being exposed to the outside world, from other districts to settle in a forest in another district illegally by clearing the forests to stake claim over the land under the FRA. The clearing of forests has seriously affected the livelihood of the indigenous local tribals who depended on the local forest produce”, Umakant Patel, member of the Ghagala forest committee in Burhanpur district, told this newspaper.
Those illegally resettled in the forest by clearing the jungles belonged to Rakhiya Barele tribe who usually live inside forest and are known to be very aggressive, according to him.
There were bloody clashes between the local indigenous people, Korku, and such illegal tribal settlers twice in 2020 and 2022 when the local tribals tried to evict them from the encroached lands, he said.
The menace was spread to forests in the districts of Jhabua, Khargone, Barwani, Burhanpur, and Khandwa over the past several years.
A senior forest officer said that two particular tribal communities, Rakhiya Barele and Tadhvi Bhil, are being targeted by the land sharks who force them to migrate to another district and help them encroach the lands in forests there by cutting trees.
The local forest officials have launched anti-encroachment drives in several districts to drive out these encroachers, he added.
The tribes who are the most-affected by the encroachment menace created by these land sharks are Korku, Bhil and Gond, Mr. Patel said.
At least 60,000 hectares of forest in Burhanpur district and around 10,000 hectares of forests in Khandwa district have been encroached by these encroachers, the forest officer said, requesting not to be quoted.
Several NGOs are backing the encroachments, he added.
Around 5,000 tribals belonging to the Korku community from Khandwa and Burhanpur districts staged a demonstration at Khandwa on Sunday demanding to protect forests that have sustained their culture and livelihood for generations and appealed for strong measures to stop encroachments in the forests by the outsiders.
We are going to intensify our stir against forest encroachments in the coming days, Mr. Patel said.
