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 non-
food 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 non-
timber forest produce of plant origin including.

a) bamboo
b) brush wood
c) stumps
d) cane
e) tussar
f) cocoons
g) honey
h) wax
i) lac
j) kendu leaves
k) medicinal plants
l) 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 bio-
diversity.

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.