Forest villages were villages forcibly settled by the British where people were given land and forced to do unpaid work in the forests. This system of forced labour was locally known as Begar. For the longest time, these villages continued to be governed by the Forest Department (FD) instead of Panchayats or Districts like other revenue villages. The conversion process is currently going on.
Here is the history of Garo Basti as told by Lal Singh, a 4th generation resident of the village:
In the early 1900s the British first settled just a few Garo families and forced them to work on the forests. Many people died of malaria and the rest ran away. The British looked for communities with cattle who would be more sedentary and wouldn’t leave as easily. They also thought that the cattle would share the burden of malaria with humans and reduce some mortality. So they got the Gorkhas from the hills and the Rabha people who lived deep in the forests by the rivers. So now there were Rabha, Gorkha, Munda & Oraon (from central India), Santhal, Mech and Dukpa making up the forest village communities.
Ramchandra Rabha is the oldest living Rabha in Garo Basti. Over 90 years of age, he remembers life as a young boy under the British when the forest officers used to ride on horses across the beats. He did not think conditions were good under the British, but he also feels things are not so great now.
Rabha is a matrilineal community where in the older times all eligible bachelors would be housed in a community home and fed by the community. Eligible women would come and pick a partner of their choice and the man would go to the woman’s house. In successive generations, if a family would have 2 children one would go to live with their partner and the other would stay back. But now with the corrupting influence of non-indigenous society, men’s family have started asking for dowry. The Rabha community is now divided by religion — Christians and Hindus.
Till the early 70s, the forest dwelling communities were forced to work without wages. The colonial oppression of these communities at the hand of the Forest Department continued after India gained political independence.
Prem Prasad Sharma is in his 80s and runs a small convenient shop in Garo Basti. Youngsters who come to buy Gutka, sugar and other attractively packaged sachets address him as grandfather — Nana or Baje (in Nepali). Everyone here speaks a few languages very fluently — Rabha, Hindi, Nepali, Bangla. In my conversations with the people, we switched between languages unconsciously and effortlessly.
Sitting in his shop Prem recalled his adolescent years, when he was shaken to see the Forest Department demolishing homes with the help of elephants in the middle of monsoon.
“Even a small bird has a home in the forest. How could they be doing this to my community,” he had thought.
A constant witness to such atrocities led Prem to build up the Begar movement, which wanted to stop free labour by the forest dwelling communities and ending the atrocities by the FD. People were forced to clean forest areas, cut trees, do plantation work, maintain fire lines — all without pay. The same people were attacked by forest guards when they went into the forests to collect fuel wood or fish.
People organized across ethnic lines to fight this injustice and the movement swelled to a crescendo in 1972 when large number of people from several villages in the Buxa area (now known as the Buxa Tiger Reserve) marched to Alipurduar. The FD had opened fire and killed 5 people. The govt. agreed to end the Begar system and started the Hajira system with a daily wage of Rs 2.38 per day which was later raised to Rs 3.00.
The conflict between the FD and the people continues to this day. In Poro village, 12 people have been shot by forest guards in the past few years. Many of them died. People of these communities depend on the forest to collect firewood, fruits, honey, mushroom and herbs and all of this well within their rights established by the Forest Rights Act of 2006. All of these villages right now are going through the process of being converted from Forest village to revenue village with each household getting the Patta for their lands. For generations they have lived at the mercy of the FD without fundamental rights.
Chilapata is a village on the edge of Jaldapara National Park…and like in other forest villages, people clash with the FD quite often. People here want their Gram Sabha to be part of the decision making about the forests. Many said that it is the ill conceived policies of the forest department that has killed tigers and rhinos. I understood a bit more as I took a walk with Santeshwar Rabha or Sante, into the forest.
Sante pointed to the forest and said, “See how far you can see through it?” Indeed, you could have a clear line of sight of a few hundred meters — as opposed to a natural forest where there is vegetation at all levels. Sante was born in Chilapata and took cattle to graze in the forest since he was a little boy.
“This is a plantation forest,” Sante explained. For decades, FD has been cutting natural forests and replacing them with plantation of teak and other varieties that will yield revenue to the FD. But such plantations don’t encourage the growth of other vegetation like brush, grass, creepers to cover all levels. Plantation forests are not conducive habitats for large animals like elephants, rhinos and tigers. The lack of other vegetation also disrupts the food chain. For example, it does not leave food for the deers which means the tiger population suffers.
In 1993 the World Bank entered into the management of forests in India and forced some changes which made it easier for contractors and people from non-Forest Communities to profit from the forests. The traditional role of the communities to protect and conserve receded. Even now, many women patrol the forests.
This has also meant increasing animal-human conflict as animals venture out of the forests in search of food. Sante himself was attacked by an elephant in the village and was saved only because the elephant’s foot got stuck in the soft paddy field. Many have not been so lucky.
In yet another example of an ill-conceived move, the FD is debarking a section of the Simul tree as it thinks that the thorn there is rupturing and infecting the skin of the Rhino. Sante thinks that is ridiculous…they have never seen Rhinos being infected in all these years…so the actual cause might be something else. Debarking the tree leads to its eventual death. The Simul is an important part of the forest, he explains, many animals including deers and bears eat the Simul flower that drop on the ground. The forest cannot afford to lose Simul trees at this point.
The proper implementation of Forest Rights Act will ensure protection of forests and the communities who have been protecting it for generations. It is their right to live there and continue to nurture the forest. The implementation of FRA will help biodiversity and a reduction of animal-human conflict. The survival of the planet in general and India in particular depends on the well being of these natural forests.
