"Forest officers are harassing us for growing crops on our traditional lands,” complained Shiv Prasad Mavasi, 45, a member of the Gond tribe at Turrah village of Satna district in Madhya Pradesh. He has been running from pillar to post ever since the Supreme Court directed all states to evict dwellers whose individual forest rights (IFR) applications were rejected under the Forest Rights Act 2006 or FRA in February 2019. The order left around 24 lakh forest dweller families, especially tribals, in the lurch. In MP alone, over 3.5 lakh families were affected.
“They destroy our ready-to-harvest crops such as wheat or vegetables by letting animals graze. Our Gram Sabha (Village Council) approved our family’s rights over 4 acres of land but officials at the sub-division level committee (SDLC) rejected it without giving proper reasons. Now, my field has been fenced by the forest department,” informed Mavasi.
He filed a fresh application on his claim before the Gram Sabha in 2022. This time he was directed by village nodal officers (VNO) to upload the Gram Sabha-approved land documents on a mobile application called ‘Van Mitra’ for further processing.
Ever since, Mavasi has been cycling over 30 km to the nearest Majgawan block at least twice a month to the local online kiosk to get an update on his application. “They stopped entertaining me and I am clueless as to whom to ask. I also approached the local revenue office but got no help,” rued Mavasi.
His plight is shared by hundreds of thousands of tribals and other traditional forest dwellers (OTFD) whose claims over their traditional land were either denied or lost in the web of new technology. For instance, Pahalwati Pusam, a Gond woman in Kewaladar village of Dindori district faces a similar predicament. Her crops now regularly get destroyed at the behest of forest officers.
On February 13, as many as 11 forest rights NGos in Madhya Pradesh gave a representation to Vibhu Nayar, Secretary in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), against the ‘Van Mitra App’. They said technology had made the whole system opaque for tribals, as it led to the massive rejection of IFR applications. Shortly thereafter, the MoTA wrote to MP's Tribal Welfare Department, demanding a detailed report on the matter. MoTA’s missive directed the re-examination of the mechanism for reviewing rejected claims, and whether adequate opportunity was given to the claimants to provide all evidence as per FRA norms.
On December 23, 2024, the MoTA wrote to the principal secretary and district collectors of Damoh, Narsinghpur and Sagar districts, instructing them not to insist on the use of the ‘Van Mitra App’ for claim submissions. It emphasised that the Gram Sabha must be provided the option to submit claims through other mediums as well.
Tech obstacle
Ever since the British Raj, forest resources were forcibly taken from tribals and the OTFD, and laws were enacted to punish those who used them without permission. Unfortunately, the colonial laws continued to be in play in independent India till the enactment of the FRA. However, its implementation remains unsatisfactory. (see table)
The Supreme Court’s eviction order came as a further blow for forest dwellers, following which the Central government consulted various states to find a way forward. And the MP government introduced the 'Van Mitra App', hoping it would enhance transparency and reduce human error. However, in February 2019, almost 61% of IFR claims were rejected in MP, which progressively increased to 74%, according to the Madhya Pradesh Forest Rights: Rejection Report. For instance, in 2023, in Burhanpur district, the offline rejection of applications was fewer than 6,000, but online rejections surged to over 10,000 applications. In other words, technology jeopardised democratic institutions such as the Gram Sabha and transferred power to government officers.
Legal experts advocate the limited use of technology for claim settlement under the FRA. They believe that digital technology should be utilised for storage instead of processing claims.