FOUR months pregnant Lalita Devi coiled herself to escape the blows of heavy sticks. She was bewildered why each blow was directed at her belly.
Men in khaki were ruthless till she fell unconscious. After five hours she found herself outside the Kone police station.
“I was lying in a pool of blood. My seventh child was never born,” she said. Lalita was among the 90 families demanding the right to land inside Magardaha forest and an end to corruption in logging. The families said the forest officials, along with nearby villag ers and some police officers, forcibly ev icted them from the forest in Sonbha dra district of Uttar Pradesh on March 16. They alleged the eviction was planned, though the trigger was their protest over tree felling, which they said had been going on illegally for long. The residents of Magar da ha had detained a tractor carrying logs for a week when a cro wd attacked them.
The majority of the residents belong to the Chero tribe and Scheduled Castes. They collect tendu leaves and do farming. Some have documents issued by the sub-divisional magistrate’s (SDM’s) office certifying that the land inside the forest belongs to their forefathers. The families say they shifted to the forest in 2000 from Karail, Kachnarwa and Sagersuti villages.
The forest department denies their claim. R K Chaurasia, divisional forest officer (DFO), Obra range, said they settled in 2007. The department records show the settlers as encroachers.
Land rights at the root of unrest Residents of Magardaha say they have been complaining to the forest department about illegal felling of trees for nine years. The trouble started when they began filing applications to claim the land under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) notified in 2007. The Act gives legal holding to those settled in forests before 2007. “The attitude of the department changed,” said Ram Khela wan, 85. It began instigating nearby villagers whom it employs to cut trees and to ferry quarried stone, the tribals alleged.
Forest guards in khaki and villagers razed the thatched huts, tied the hands of men behind their backs, beat them with sticks and boots and assaulted the women, they added. “They took away our cattle,” said Ram Ghulam. The tribals had about 80 cows and 100 goats.
The settlers spent the night outside the Kone police station. Officers at the police station refused to file an FIR, they said. The government hospital at Robertsganj denied treatment to Lalita, who lost her child. “Doctors demanded a copy of the FIR and refused to treat her,” said Ram Ghulam. Most tribals have taken shelter in Karail village.
| Once land is allotted tribals won’t allow illegal felling of trees. This will hamper forest officials’ income. Guards have orders to give minimum possible land to tribals | |
| —BUDHINARAYAN TOPPO Member, state-level committee monitoring FRA |