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Tuesday, Sep 28, 2004

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National

Aliens in their own land

By Sunny Sebastian

— Photo: Gopal Sunger

The fear of starvation deaths stalks Baran district of Rajasthan. An emaciated villager taking shelter under a tree near Kishan Ganj.

SHAHABAD (RAJASTHAN), SEPT. 27 . The Sahariya tribals are on the run in their own land. The land greedy farming communities of the plains have grabbed a good chunk of their holdings in South East Rajasthan while the Forest and the Revenue departments of the State, often working at cross purposes, have made life miserable for them.

Obviously, the primitive Sahariyas are yet to come into terms with the laws of the land which still remain alien tenets to them. Many of them have been rendered to the status of labourers working for others in lands once belonged to them. Once forest dwellers with their own set of rules and social norms, they are increasingly getting exposed to the hostile society outside.

Shrinking habitat

There seems to be no escaping for them from the "influence'' of the mainstream society as even if they are not thrown out of the forests, their jungle habitats are shrinking. Again, with the woods yielding very little in terms of minor forest produce, surviving on them alone has become difficult.

While driving down from the divisional headquarter town of Kota on the National Highway No.76 to Baran or while moving in the far flung Sahariya villages in the blocs of Shahabad and Kishanganj, one can easily differentiate between the plots belonging to the tribesmen and those under cultivation by other communities. Be it a drought year or a good monsoon year if the fields are lush green with healthy standing crops of soybean, rice or maize most probably they do not belong to the Sahariyas.

This is because all the fertile land which originally belonged to the Sahariyas has been taken over by others by either deceit or after the owner falling into the trap of indebtedness.

Even if any Sahariya farmer continued to hold on to his plot — on an average which is below 4-5 bighas in any case — he does not have the capacity to irrigate them in case of drought or afford to buy seeds to try out commercial crops like soybean.

Records `manipulated'

"People from outside are entering the tribal area and occupying most of their fertile land. The outsiders with the help of the Government officials have manipulated the land records. Even the land set aside for the Sahariyas have been allocated to other people rendering the Sahariyas to be bonded labourers in their own land,'' Moti, an activist with the Sankalp Sanstha, based at Mamoni in Shahabad said.

"In fact the end of old order for the Sahariyas had started with the Independence. Ever since the formation of the Forest and Revenue rules the bureaucracy started treating the tribals as intruders. They are being pushed out of their own land,'' Mr. Moti added.

Sometime back when Sankalp carried out a survey on land in Kedla in Khandela gram panchayat in Kishanganj, it was found that 80 Sahariya families were victims to usurpation of land.

Manifold travails

During scarcity situations the Sahariyas either mortgaged their standing crop or offered their labour for the next one year at amounts ranging from Rs.10,000 to Rs.12,000, Mr. Moti informed.

The Sahariyas' travails with the land were manifold. The tribals, cultivating the forest land unaware of the rules have been made to pay penalties. In the past the Revenue Department allocated land to the tribals but the Forest Department put them behind the bars once they occupied it.

The conflicts between the Forest and the Revenue departments, some going back to 50 years, have not been resolved yet much to the detriment of the Sahariyas.

Migration aplenty

Of late there is a migration of people belonging to aggressive farming communities like the Jats, Sikhs and Gujjars to the area. There are already some 20-25 villages of Gujjars in Kishanganj while some 100 villages of Bheels, the tribals from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, too have come up in Shahabad-Kishanganj.

Already the Sahariyas account for only 34 per cent of the population in the area. The growing influx of outsiders is bound to further weaken their collective bargaining power both socially and politically.

Public outcry

In Bhawargarh, not far away from the villages of Brahmpura and Mayatha in Kishanganj bloc in Baran district where a series of deaths in July-August, allegedly of starvation, have evoked a public outcry, people from over 40 villages met on September 23 to demand titles for their land. Majority of them belonged to the Sahariya tribe while the rest were the nomadic Banjaras and backward Khervas.

Amidst the prevailing gloom and scare of spreading diseases and untimely deaths, the tribal people were airing their concern over the eviction notices received by many from the Forest Department. The gathering, half of which comprised women, was found restive on account of notices served to as many as 800 families in the area by the Forest Department, under Section 91(trespass).

The local MLA, Hemraj Meena, belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party spoke to them about stopping the issuance of all such notices to those who had the possession on the Forest land prior to 1980. However, the fact remains that the BJP had come to power in the State promising regularisation of possessions by the Adivasis on the forest land up to 1993.

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