Mohsina Malik
A joint team of the officers of Pahalgam Development Authority, Wildlife, Forest, Revenue, Police, and Pahalgam Development Authority on 7th November launched an anti-encroachment drive at several areas of Pahalgam of Anantnag and retrieved 110 Kanals of land.
The CEO PDA Mushtaq Ahmad Semnani, DFO Wildlife Rouf Ahmad Zargar, Forest Range officer Pahalgam, Tehsildar Pahalgam and other senior officers of the concerned departments were present during the demolition drive.
On 8th November, The Pahalgam Development Authority demolished 13 more structures in various places of the tourist resort. PDA officials said the demolition drive was undertaken in accordance with orders of the High Court in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
The demolition drive was conducted by a team, comprising of police and PDA officials led by Chief Executive Officer, Pahalgam Development Authority Muhammad Yousuf Bhat.
The structures were demolished at Khelan, Mamal, Movera, Lidroo, Branward, Rangward, Pahalgam market and Sadhupadaw areas. “No illegal structure or construction will be allowed to come up in or around Pahalgam or on the banks of river Lidder in pursuance to High Court orders”, says the CEO.
Talking via phone Sub-District Magistrate (SDM) Syed Naseer told The Kashmiriyat, “This is an anti-encroachment drive for illegally occupied lands on government’s land, taken under high court orders”. He further added the drive will continue till other illegal structures are demolished.
On 12th November, a video was shared on a social media platform showing a Gujjar Kotha being demolished by the forest authorities. The video was shared by Zahid Choudhary and the video evoked a huge criticism against the authorities demolishing the temporary structures of these tribal people.
While asking DC Anantnag Kuldip Singh Sidha about the demolition drive he said, they are retrieving the forest land/ state land which was illegally occupied by the tribal community. Till now the administration has retrieved 700 Kanals of land in Pahalgam. He added, “Nobody is shelterless, these structures were abandoned and the land was illegally occupied”.
Fear Among the Indigenous Gujjar Bakerwal community
Talking to Zahid Choudhary, President of Jammu and Kashmir Gujjar Bakarwal Youth Welfare Conference on phone, he said, “yesterday in Pahalgam a demolition drive was started by the Jammu Kashmir Administration in higher areas of Pahalgam without any notice.
Dhokas (temporary structures) were demolished while asking them (the Administration) they told these are illegal constructions on government land.
“We told the administration that we are living here for 60-70 years, these are our temporary houses where we live in summers and shift to Jammu in winters. We have been demanding the implementation of the Forest Act (FRA) for past years, but our voices fall to deaf ears,” Zahid Choudhary told The Kashmiriyat.
He said that after the Abrogation of Article 370, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech told we will implement FRA but it never happened.
Visiting these three areas in Pahalgam, the locals told The Kashmiriyat that the officials along with a team of more than hundred people stormed into the village after threatening the villagers to not resist the demolition move.
“They threatened us that they will get us arrested if we even try to resist or speak against the measure,” a local told The Kashmiriyat. The levels of fear that are visible in the local indigenous community come from a series of events that have happened in the recent past.
In August this year, around a hundred families of the community were sent notices to evacuate their houses in the Batote area on the Kashmir highway, several houses were damaged.
He also added it is harassment to the Gujjar Bakarwal community. “We have to continue with the pre-1947 laws about forest land rights, and the central laws were never imposed in Jammu and Kashmir”.
Choudhary said that, “These structures are abandoned in winters because the nomads migrate to the Jammu region in winters every year, and return in summers. It is our land and we have not illegally occupied it”.
Gujjars and Barkarwals who stay in Kashmir for six months in the summer season, have already migrated to areas of Jammu leaving behind their temporary structures here, said Choudhary.
Bashir Ahmad Swati, a local from the area, told The Kashmiriyat that there are 17 families who are living in Mammal Wudar area, almost three kilometeres away from Pahalgam.
“I was provided compensation for rebuilding my burnt house in 2008 at the same venue,” but a few days ago, a notice was served to me, to leave the house and go somewhere”.
He told us, “we are worried about our children, where are we going to take them and where will we go if they are telling us to go somewhere else”.
Why are these drives against poor people only, there are other concrete structures in the area why are those not demolished, he added. Around 400 people came here and demolished our temporary houses, our crops were damaged, he says.
Lidroo is about 4 kilometers before Pahalgam where the main demolition was done. There is a fear in tribal communities about their living and shelter.
Demand for Forest Rights Act-2006
The Gujjar-Bakarwal community is a largely Muslim nomadic group. Classified as a Scheduled Tribe, it has been marginalized for decades.
Most of the laws in Jammu Kashmir changed and now the central laws are in place, but there is no law to protect the indigenous communities living in the forests for many generations. 2006, Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, popularly known as the Forest Rights Act gives the traditional forest dwellers their rights to access, manage and govern forest lands and resources within village boundaries, which had been controlled by the forest department since colonial times.
Under this law, traditional forest dwellers are protected against forced displacements. They also have grazing rights, access to water resources, and are entitled to minor forest produce except timber.
The Gujjar-Bakarwal community was given access to forests with proper registration Under Dogra rule (1846-1947), and they were also allotted patches of land, but the rights with course of time were eroded.
Gulmarg, Pahalgam in Kashmir were turned into tourist resorts, and as Militancy erupted the lands were out of bonds for Gujjars, the senior members of the community recall.
A 2012 survey of tribal pastoralists by the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation found 39% of respondents had given up on migratory traditions due to the restrictions imposed after militancy.
According to the 2011 Census, Scheduled Tribes form 11.9% of the state’s population. The majority (88.6%) are Muslim, followed by Buddhist (6.7%) and Hindu (4.5%).
In Early 2018, the former chief minister- Mehbooba Mufti ordered that no member of the Gujjar-Bakarwal community should be dislocated.
The Roshni Act granted ownership to the inhabitants of state land.
The Abrogation of the Roshni Act has thrust thousands of Gujjar and Bakerwal families to the verge of losing possession of their land.
As per the Forest Right Act 2006, traditional forest dwellers are protected against forced displacements and have other rights as well, which include grazing rights, access to water resources, and access to forest products except for timber.
The government says that the Forest Right Act is already applicable in Jammu Kashmir after August 5, and if it is notified here by the government, then these demolitions drive against these poor and underprivileged people are illegal.
The Forest Right Act, schedule tribes have been permitted and allowed to follow their culture and preserve their identity in parts of India and a similar approach should be followed in Jammu and Kashmir, says the tribal community.
While the law gets implemented in JK, like other laws after the abrogation of article 370, it seems the administration is violating its own rules.
If this kind of demolition continues, where we will go, in future I don’t think there will be any house left for us to live in, says Choudhary.
“I do not know if all the central laws have been applied here in Jammu Kashmir, why is the admin reluctant to not implement this law here, the indigenous community needs the law, ” Zahid Choudhary asks.
Additional reportage by Qazi Shibli