SALEM: While the poor and marginalised tribal community is yet to benefit out of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, thanks to procedural and legal hurdles, the hill and forest areas in Salem are getting swept by yet another wave of illegal encroachments.
In a bid to claim right to use of forest land under the new Act, land grabbers of various shades are in a virtual spree cutting down trees and undergrowth to level the ground for farming. Karumandhurai in Kalrayan Hills is under severe threat. Indiscriminate tree cutting and encroachments is fast catching up in patta lands and in forest lands in Pacahamaial, Sheveroyan Hills and Kolli Hills. Vast patches of denuded lands are a common sight.
According to locals (which forest officials confirm), as many as 22 earthmovers (JCBs) are in operation in Karumandhurai and in many parts of Kalrayan Hills. JCBs are hired by encroachers to clear trees and level the ground in a single day. Farming can commence the very next day. Those who cannot afford to hire JCB’s are setting fire to the trees after axing them down. According to Venkatesh, a youth activist, the forest guards seldom fine the offenders. Instead, they receive huge amount of bribe and let them scot free. “As the people engaged in such activities are backed by political and money power, the official intervention has become impossible,” says Venkatesh.
Environmental-cum-social activist A Ruby, director of Institute of Media and Social Research laments that the Kalrayan Hills are catchments and source of Thumbal and Vashista rivers. Indiscriminate clearing of forests is dealing an irreversible damage to the ecological balance, he said.
The Forest Department’s surreptitious silence over this ongoing plunder is perplexing.
Not many cases have been booked. According to V Naganathan, District Forest Officer, the matter could not be dealt with force because of the clout enjoyed by the encroachers. Apart from the political and the rich, extreme left wing groups and so-called tribal activists are also in the spree perhaps hoping that one day the lands could be claimed under the Forest Right Act.
Naganathan says, as an immediate measure to save the forests and the hills, use of earthmovers should be banned in areas that come under the Hill Area Protection Act. “We have sent official reports to the government about the situation and we hope action will be taken,” he says.