Letters

Dang and blast

The forest officials of Dangs district in Gujarat have left no stone unturned in inflicting atrocities on the adivasi inhabitants living there. All over the country, adivasis cultivate on forest lands for their sustenance. They have been doing so for many centuries now, much before the forest department came into existence. In the Dangs too, the adivasis have been cultivating forest lands as a means of their livelihood since time immemorial.

We would like to acquaint your readers with the sordid tale of the blind wrath showered on the adivasis of the Dangs by the forest officials on the July 4, 1995.

Thirty five kilometers north of Ahwa, district headquarters of the Dangs, is the village of Bhalkhet. Farmers have been cultivating on the "forest compartment" No. 67 for years. Their entire daily existence depends on that activity. This compartment comes under the Kalibel Range. On that fateful day, the forest officials and their hired labourers tried to stop the saag cultivation forcibly. They dug up the whole place by force.

The people of the village pleaded with the forest officials and requested them not to destroy their livelihoods and ruin a whole year's backbreaking work. Further, if they had to shift their fields, where could they go? These crops were their life, so they pleaded with the officials not to destroy them.

But all their pleas fell on deaf ears. The officials and rangers, among whom were Kalyanbhai, Sonubhai, Buddhabhai, Jayantibhai and others, did not pay any heed to their plight. In addition, these people abused the farmers all the while that they ruthlessly went ahead with their work of uprooting the farms. Finally, with their backs to the wall, the farmers tried to physically stop this wanton destruction, which resulted in a minor conflict with the officials. The latter complained to their seniors. They in turn reached the farms with their own reinforcement of staff. But, instead of trying to resolve the issue, they gave orders to start indiscriminate firing.

What followed was pure hell. The forest officials and the police at their command seemed to have been possessed with some terrible evil force which made them blind to human miseries. No less than 8 rounds were fired. It was God's grace, or may be sheer luck, that no one was seriously injured.

On top of this, the officials slapped a case for breaking forest codes on the innocent farmers. This is the story of the officialdom's wrath on the Black Day, July 4. We have to remember that in case number 6884, relating to another such area, there is a stay order obtained from the Gujarat High Court in 1993. The issues are similar in both these cases.

Presently, after the Bhalkhet fracas, Madubhai and 3 other farmers from village Gunjpeda, Mangabhai and 8 others from Bhalkhet, 3 farmers from Ghodi and 3 others from Khatal, along with 60 other men and women,stand implicated under the Indian Penal Code, sections 143, 147, 148, 332, 427, 435, and 27, 30 and 31....

Ignorantmalicious

I would like to refer to the letter from Bhanoomitra Acharya, published in Down To Earth in the July 15, 1995 issue, under the caption "Half-truths, these".

I strongly discount the pretentious and motivatedly distorted contents of the letter. Acharya seems to be lacking in basic knowledge and information about the tribals' shikar rituals.

This Society (SRDTC) is manned by highly educated tribal youths and activists dedicated to preserving the tribals' cultural and social ethos. It has a strong grassroot-level base, and enjoys the blessings of the community heads, like "Desh-prodhans" and "Desh-manjhis", who weilding considerable social authority over the tribal masses even to this date. srdtc made the first ever endeavour in carrying the message of conservation to the tribals through a comprehensive leaflet in Santhali language. The pioneering effort was designed to wean away the tribals from all pernicious practices that harmed wildlife or forests.

Our Society can only pity those who envy our growing strength and popularity. We do not take funds from government agencies, or from the Simplipal Tiger Reserve for our existence. Acharya's allegation that srdtc was being flushed with funds from the Simlipal Tiger Reserve clearly indicated his intention of denigrating the Society. It will be better for Acharya to wisen himself, and rise from an acute poverty of knowledge, before trying to pull down any organisation that stands for the conservation of natural forests and wildlife in the interests of the tribals in particular, and humanity in general.

Tribal peoples everywhere have a symbiotic relationship with forests, and we are sure that our efforts to involve tribals to protect the forests will be uniquely successful, despite the tireless efforts by vested interests, to subvert our mission....

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