COVER STORY

Always on the run

ASHA KRISHNAKUMAR

VANKACHINTA is one of the 16 "illegal" villages in the Paderu panchayat in Visakhapatnam district. It does not exist in the Andhra Pradesh government records, that is, the residents are not enlisted in the Census. The government does not recognise these villages and therefore denies their inhabitants any support. The fault does not lie with them. The families practise shifting cultivation and, hence, the 1950 Census, which was taken as the baseline for counting the tribal people, did not enumerate them.

With terror writ on her face, K. Lakshmi narrated the travails of the 26 families of Vankachinta who were driven out by Forest Department officials. She recalls her house being pulled down even as her parents pleaded with the officials. They had been living there and cultivating the lands for almost 50 years. But the officials expressed helplessness, saying they had been instructed to evict all "encroachers" in accordance with a Supreme Court order. The families have been chased from one place to another in the Paderu Agency area and denied land titles. This is the case with 15 other villages, which include Nandhigaravu, Onuru, Isakallu, Joduru, Pannandavumailu, Vanchabarthi and Chinthagunnalu.

According to K. Sombabu of Vankachinta, the people of the village migrated to the Paderu area some 60 years ago after being displaced by a development project in the Upper Kolab region of Orissa. Traditionally practising shifting cultivation, they have constantly moved from one place to another clearing thick forests. Says Lakshmi: "We have suffered for several years, alienated from our land that is central to our culture and livelihood and marginalised despite the rich resources amid which we live."

According to Sombabu, life became more stable after the mid-1990s when the Forest Department made them part of the Vana Samrakshana Samiti (VSS) scheme. Although the VSS does not apply to the "illegal" villages, three or four hamlets that have been fighting for land ownership right have been covered by it.

Managed with funds from the World Bank and allocations from a few Centrally sponsored schemes, the VSS was initiated in the early 1990s in Andhra Pradesh as part of the participative Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme. The promise of the initiative is: "Every household living in the hamlets/villages/cluster of villages, particularly those depending on forests for the daily needs, would have the option of becoming a member of samiti. However, once under the VSS scheme, all tribal people of the village automatically become its members." The basic philosophy of the VSS is that those dependent on the forest should also manage it.

The Forest Department provides inputs to grow trees and training. Trees grown under the VSS include tamarind, silver oak and teak, besides coffee. The government pays for the labour and also shares the income from the produce. The Girijan Cooperative Corporation buys the produce. The tribal people are allowed to collect and sell minor forest produce as well. The VSS maintains two accounts: the government account from which the labour is paid and the village account in which the VSS deposits money from the sale of produce. The money in the village account is used for community welfare activities. While the government account is jointly maintained by an official and a tribal person, the village account is managed solely by the tribal people.

Although the tribal people of Vankachinta feel that the VSS provides them some protection and has resolved the conflict with the Forest Department to the extent that they are now able to stay at one place, they are not sure how long this will last. Moreover, without a permanent residence, they have no voting rights, cannot get ration cards, and are not covered by any development scheme. The tribal people want permanent ownership rights of their lands as they are in constant confrontation with the officials over what to grow, where and at what cost.

Asks Sombabu: "What is the sanctity of maintaining 33 per cent forest cover? Any cultivable land in the hills should be cultivated." Agrees Samata's Ravi Rebbapragada: "Scientifically, hillslides with a slope of up to 65 per cent can be cultivated. Only when the slope is greater than that should it be under forest." "Socially and ecologically, it is best for the tribal people to remain at one place. The forest is central to their existence," he says.

With the government not even acknowledging their existence, the tribal families, it appears, will remain at loggerheads with the officials.

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