Maoists gain from villages not getting revenue status

The death of 55 policemen in Maoist violence in Bilaspur district of Chattisgarh recently points at the isolation and virtual invisibility of forest villages on the development map of the country, making them convenient breeding grounds for Maoists.

This has been thanks to failure of both states and Centre to convert them into revenue villages under the jurisdiction of their respective district collectors.

Tribals inhabit the 2,700 forest villages in the country (252 in Chattisgarh alone) and are governed directly by the forest departments of the states, denying them all central poverty alleviation schemes, which are run through the revenue department, with money flowing through the collectorate.

Besides these villages, 1,47,000 forest villages have been acknowledged by the Forest Survey of India.

Maoist-watchers blame the tearing apart of tribals in Chattisgarh into Maoist and counter-Maoist camps on their being denied all entitlements, thanks to their non-conversion into revenue villages. This has meant not only denial of roads, schools, healthcare and mid-day meals, or any other welfare scheme, but a convenient isolation which suits Maoist elements.

A Central Committee of Secretaries headed by former Rural Development Secretary S R Shankaran had in 1991 suggested conversion of all of them into revenue villages, to be administered by the District Collector rather than the forest officials.

But the state forest departments and the Union Environment ministry never released any of these villages from their hold.

In 2004, the ministry once again gave 'in principle' approval for conversion of all forest villages in Chattisgarh. These included the 85 Maoist-hit forest villages of Dantewada district, 56 villages in Bastar, 20 in Bilaspur and 16 in Durg. But the ministry never carried out its intent.

According to a top official in the ministry, the proposal has to come from the states and the approval has to go from the Centre. Hence the conversion never happens.

He also said that funds never translate into development as they are not released through the Collector as in other villages. "All funds are to be spent through the state forest department," he says.

Apart from these 2,700 villages recognised by the forest ministry, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) has acknowledged the existence of over 1,47,000 forest villages. These don't exist even on paper .

Pradeep Prabhu, one of the co-authors of the Scheduled Tribe Recognition of Rights Act, said, "The forest villages have been kept outside normal development process and this has been a godsend for Maoists."

This is so both in forest villages as well as those tribal villages which are not recorded anywhere and are acknowledged by the FSI, says Prabhu.

As for use of development funds, no auditing happens in the forests. Therefore, it is at the forest department's mercy, he says.

Prabhu says that the new law would pave way for the conversion of these 2,700 forest villages into revenue villages. This time it will be in the hands of the Gram Sabha to do the needful and no one can stop it, he says.

However, environment ministry officials are not so sure. They said that determination of the status of the land would not be such a simple process.