Threat of forced eviction of tribals and forest-dwellers still looms large

Eviction of a few lakh families, instead of millions, is not an option the government should be willing to argue before the SC

The threat of forced mass eviction of tribals and forest-dwellers from their traditional forestlands is not yet over. On July 24 the Supreme Court will hear again the case in which it had earlier ordered mass eviction of more than 1.85 million tribal and forest-dwelling families. The order, dated February 13, 2019, asked states to evict all those families whose claims to forestland under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 had been rejected. 

With the order threatening forced mass evictions in middle of election season, with civil society of all hues and Opposition parties rising nosily in protest, the Union government