in Madhya Pradesh
Madhya
Pradesh has an area of Approximately 95 lakh hectares under teak, sal and
miscellaneous forests, which constitutes approximately 15 percent of the forest
area of the country.
Clearing
or breaking up forest land or attempting to do so for agriculture or for any
other purpose, is prohibited under Section 26 (h) of the Indian Forest Act
(1927) and is punishable by imprisonment for one year. Further, Section 63 of
the Act also prescribes the alteration, moving, destroying or defacing of
boundary marks of any forests.
People
living in the forest areas, especially the tribal, are generally dependent on
marginal agriculture for their survival. Because of the lack of adequate rural
development and economic opportunities in the remote areas, rural people have
developed a tendency to cultivate forestland depending upon the needs of the
family. The National Forest Policy recognized this practice and even advised
the government to release that cultivable land for agriculture wherever
demanded, although the 1988 Policy has expressed concern at the increasing
trend in forest encroachments and has advised the state not to regularize them.
Although the forest policy in independent
Regularization
of pre-1980 encroachment
The
GOI issued guidelines for the containment of forest encroachments vide their
circular dated 18.9.1990 and prescribed the criterion for the regularization of
pre-1980 encroachments. The state government has regularized 44367.29 hectares
encroachments, involving 35596 encroachers, in the undivided Madhya Pradesh,
with the approval of GOI, and has been further pursuing the question of
settlement of nearly 90560.77 hectares of forest encroachment, involving 70141
encroachers who occupied these lands prior to
Post-1980
encroachments
While
the state stands committed to stop further encroachment of forestland, it is
also enjoined to evacuate all the post 1980 encroachments from forestlands.
However, in view of the socio-economic nature of the problem and the sensitivity
of the society to the issues involving tribals, the state agencies hesitate to
use the force required to evict the encroachers in a sustained manner. In spite
of the problems, the state has evicted encroachments from an area of
approximately 50,000 hectares involving nearly 15,000 persons, up to December
2002. As on December 2002 the forest area occupied by the encroachers
(post-1980) is estimated to be approximately 138110.585 hectares involving
nearly 92,000 persons. Due to the strengthened vigil maintained by the field
officers, the area under encroachments has actually come down in the last two
years, and the state is determined to maintain this trend.
Although
forest encroachments are generally believed to be a socio-economic problems
involving local tribal communities but it has many other implications as well
such as :
v
In
some sensitive areas, certain activist organizations have come up who encourage
local people to encroach open forest land and incite them to forcibly oppose
the legal action taken by the government officials. They even encourage people
to lodge false complaints, as a part of the strategy, against forest staff, to
discourage them from taking effective action
v
Although
encroachments are a problem in all the forest areas, some districts such as
Burhanpur, Khargone, Badwani, DHar, Jhabua, Guna and Vidisha etc. are
relatively more sensitive. A majority of the encroachers in many of these
districts are reported to be outsiders (coming from other districts) rather
than local tribal
v
There
are many influential people, locally called Navadia
Patels, who are reported to charge a fee from every encroacher in exchange
for this protection
v
The
annual rate of fresh encroachments has been approximately 5000-6000 hectares
which results in the illegal felling of nearly 200,000 trees, apart from other
adverse effects on the environment. This is a major cause of deforestation in
the state and society has to find a way to deal with this issue
v
It
is generally claimed by many VOs that most of the people being evicted as
post-1980 days. To rule out any such cases the state has set up district level
committees, consisting of forest, revenue and tribal department officials, to
identify any such cases, as advised by GOI in their letter dated 30.10.2002. The
deadline for these committees has expired twice but no eligible cases have been
identified in any of the ten districts from which reports have been received so
far
v
It
is also believed that due to the repeated regularization of encroachments in
the past, people are encouraged to attempt encroachment in the hope that these
will be regularized one day. Despite this risk, the state government is
compelled to settle old encroachers in view of the socio-economic implications
of the issues
v
Whereas
forest officers are duty-bound to prevent and evict forest encroachments and
can be preceded against if they do not. However, the sympathy of society
normally goes in favor of the encroachers because most of the encroachers are
tribal. This generates hesitation in the minds of lower officials in taking
effective action
v
The
Indian Forest Act provides for an imprisonment for one year for offences
involving forest encroachments, but the courts tend to take a very lenient view
and people get away with very minor punishment from the courts. Even if
convicted, people do not vacate these encroachments and forest department is
expected to use force to claim in the land in favor of government
v
The
forest officials are usually vulnerable to prosecution under the Scheduled
Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act due to false
complaints lodged by the encroachers
v
Because
encroachments take place in a number of stages starting with demarcation, bush
cutting, girdling, felling, ploughing, sowing etc. and because of the dynamic
(and seasonal) nature of the activity, it is difficult to have an exact
estimate of the land actually occupied by the encroachers. In many cases, the
encroachers tend to occupy the same piece of land again and again and the same
piece of land also is accounted more than once in the computation of the
affected area
v
It
is generally claimed by VOs, with a vested interest in acquiring a constituency
among the tribals, that the government is evicting the tribals from the lands
traditionally occupied by them, which is not true. All lands traditionally
occupied by the people for cultivation were left out of the forest blocks at
the time of demarcation and notification of forest areas and the areas under
encroachment is government property in the custody of forest department
v
The
state government of Madhya Pradesh has constituted a district level task force
under the chairmanship of district collector, with the DFO and superintendent
of police as members, to protect the forest resources against encroachment and
illicit felling. These officers taken wherever necessary. Government officials
are subject to the laws of the land and are strictly prohibited from using
highhanded methods in the discharge of their forest protection related duties
v
The
GOI had directed the states, vide their letter dated 3.5.2002, to evict all
post-1980 encroachments by
v
The
above IA is still pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court and is likely to
come up for hearing soon. The State will take further necessary action on the
basis of the directions of the
overview of administrative process for settlement operation
between 1990 to 2004
|
s.no. |
Details of the Memorandum |
Subject |
|
1 |
Issued
by GOI dated 18.09.1990 |
Instructions
given for resolving disputed cases during forest land settlement |
|
2 |
Issued
by GOI dated 18.09.1990 |
Guidelines
for survey and settlement |
|
3 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 21.04.1994 |
Instructions
for joint survey of forest & revenue departments |
|
4 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 05,12.1995 |
Asked
to submit a report on actions taken on the basis of previous notifications
for GOI |
|
5 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 06.04.1996 |
Submitted
proposal for Jabalpur District |
|
6 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 21.08.1996 |
Submitted
proposal for Betul District |
|
7 |
Issued
by Minister Environment & Forest MP GOV dated 29.11.1995 |
Instructions
for taking time bound action for settlement |
|
8 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 02.02.1996 |
Submitted
proposal for conversion of |
|
9 |
Official
letter from Chief Minister to Prime Minister about regularization dated
03.02.1996 |
Request
for permission for taking regularization action pre-1980 possession |
|
10 |
Official
letter from Chief Minister to Forest Minister about regularization dated
22.02.1996 |
Request
for permission about pre-1980 settlement and conversion of forest villages |
|
11 |
Official
letter from Chief Minister to Prime Minister about regularization dated
23.02.1996 |
Request
for permission for taking regularization action pre-1980 possession |
|
12 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 20.03.1996 |
Proposal
for regularization of settlement in Rajnandgaon District |
|
13 |
Issued
by GOI dated 17.06.1996 |
Instructions
for submission of specific information about encroachment |
|
14 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 31.12.1996 |
Forest
Secretary submitted records and requesting to Secretary MoEF for given
permission for pre-1980 encroachment |
|
15 |
Issued by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 31.12.1996 |
Forest
Secretary submitted records and requesting to Secretary MoEF for given
permission for pre-1980 encroachment |
|
16 |
Presented to Prime Minister by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 17.06.1997 |
Requesting
for given permission for settlement of pre-1980 cases |
|
17 |
Presented
to Prime Minister by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh dated 04.11.1997 |
Requesting
for issuing instructions about pre-1980 settlement process |
|
18 |
Issued
by GOI dated 09.06.1998 |
Informing
State about official proceedings and complaining about due compensatory
forestry |
|
19 |
Issued
by MoEF dated 16.06.1998 |
Complaining
State about due compensatory forestry |
|
20 |
Submission
of Chief Minister to MoEF dated 13.01.1999 |
Requesting
for giving permission for compensatory forestry |
|
21 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 21.07.1999 |
Submission
of plan for compensatory forestry to the MoEF |
|
22 |
Issued
by GOI dated 05.10.1999 |
MoEF
asking for submission of documentary proofs of pre-1980 encroachment and
sueesting for compensatory forestry |
|
23 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 12.11.1999 |
Submission
of answers with reference to the letter issued by MoEF dated 05.10.1999 |
|
24 |
Submission
of Chief Minister to Cabinet Minister of Tribal Welfare dated 28.12.1999 |
Requesting
for taking decision of settlement of pre-1980 encroachments |
|
25 |
Submission
of Chief Minister to Cabinet Minister of Social Justice dated 28.12.1999 |
Requesting
for taking decision of settlement of pre-1980 encroachments |
|
26 |
Issued
by GOI dated 11.01.2000 |
Asking
for submission of required information for pre-1980 encroachers |
|
27 |
Issued
by GOI dated 27.01.2000 |
Asking
for submission of required information for pre-1980 encroachers |
|
28 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 12.02.2000 |
Submission
by State to the GOI on following lines |
|
29 |
Issued
by Madhya Pradesh Government dated 15.12.2000 |
Submission
by State about planning of compensatory forestry for pre-1980 settlement |
|
30 |
Issued
by GOI dated 23.02.2000 |
Informing
MoEF about proceedings of Supreme Court which prohibit the regularization
process of pre-1980 encroachers |
|
31 |
Issued
by GOI dated 05.07.2000 |
GOI
specify the State for sending a parallel proposal for settlement of pre-1976
possession/encroachment and further re-submission of new proposal for the
period of 01.01.1977 to 06.03.1979 |
|
32 |
Issued
by PCCF (Land Settlement) dated 09.06.2000 |
Re-submission
of proposal |
|
33 |
Issued
by Minister of Forest (MP) to Cabinet Minister of |
Requesting
for issuing circular after the formal announcement of Cabinet Minister of
Forest GOI |
|
34 |
Submission
by Chief Minster to the Prime Minister dated 24.08.2000 |
Requesting
for comprehensive review of |
|
35 |
Issued
by National Commission of Scheduled Tribes & Scheduled Castes dated
10.05.2001 |
Specify
for organizing a high level meeting for discussion the economic support for
compensatory forestry by Ministry of Tribal Welfare GOI |
|
36 |
Issued
by GOI dated 28.05.2001 |
Detailed
instructions about (a) conditional approval for settlement of pre-1976
encroachment along with compensatory forestry (b) theoretical approval for
settlement of encroachers falls under dated 01.01.1977 to 06.03.1979 with the
condition of resurvey for eligible encroachments (c) disagreement for
settlement of encroachers in forest areas thereof 25.10.1980 |