Sheetal Banchariya
The Jammu Kashmir administration has said it will implement the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
The central Act was, however, not applicable or implemented in Jammu Kashmir in the last 14 years. It became applicable to the region only after October 31, 2019, hence, recognizing the rights of forest-dwelling communities for the first time in Jammu Kashmir.
But, the ground reality is very different from the official version. Recently, members of the Indigenous Gujjar Bakerwal community in Lidroo area of Anantnag district’s Pahalgam were allegedly harassed and their temporary housing structures were demolished as part of the eviction drive.
Fear of Eviction amid Delay in Implementation of FRA
Shabir Ahmad Sathi, a resident of Mammal Wudar area which is almost three kilometres away from Pahalgam, told The Kashmiriyat that the evacuation drives are a way of harassing theIndigenous Gujjar Bakerwal community members.
“We have been living at these places for eternity. Our community is responsible for taking care of forests, then how do we become illegal occupiers of the land? Since members of the Gujjar Bakerwal community did not have access to education in the beginning, they settled themselves in forests and start living on their own by growing their crops and creating temporary shelters. Where will we go if our houses are demolished?” he said.
Sathi believes that after the Forest Rights Act, 2006, is implemented in the region, things may change for the community but he is not too hopeful. “Our houses have been burnt multiple times and I do not want my children to see the same fate. Maybe things will change after the Act is implemented but we must not forget that it took more than 14 years for it to just get implemented, it may take another 14 years for the results to show on the ground,” says Sathi, who works as a daily-wage labourer in the forest department.
What do Officials and Leaders of the Indigenous Community say?
Syed Naseer, Sub-District Magistrate (SDM), Pahalgam, denied that any unlawful activity was conducted in the area and said that the demolition drives were only conducted on the orders of the honourable high court.
“We had kept forest officers in the loop that helped us in pinpointing the illegal encroachments in the area. The houses demolished in the drive are only of those people who were not entitled to have any rights on these structures. However, if anyone feels that their rights have been violated and have the lawful means to justify the violation, they can reach out to the concerned authorities,” Naseer said.
For several decades, members of the Gujjar Bakerwal community have been involved in seasonal migration where they spend the winters in Jammu and come back to the valley in summers. But, over the years, similar eviction drives have been conducted in several areas in Jammu.
Recently, almost 150 people of the community received an eviction notice in the Rajouri region of Jammu. Similarly, the members of the community in Kathua, Samba, and Batot have also been allegedly harassed.
Zahid Parwaz Choudhary, President of the Jammu Kashmir Gujjar Bakerwal Youth Welfare Conference, is of the opinion that these eviction drives are a way to make maximum use of the abrogation of Article 370, which allows anyone to own land in Jammu Kashmir.
He said that it is not impossible to think of these demolition drives as a means to get the land vacated and later allot it to some industrialist or hotelier.
“Earlier, the governments claimed that the Forest Rights Act cannot be implemented in Jammu Kashmir due to the special status of the state due to Article 370 and 35A. But, other major policies including the Food Security Act and GST were implemented without any issue. There can be no justification for demolishing houses of tribal people,” Choudhary told The Kashmiriyat.
The government of Jammu Kashmir will have to complete all the records concerning the Forest Rights Act, 2006, by January 1, 2021, and the Act may be implemented by March 2021.