Definition of Forest Worker

The National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers (NFFPFW) has, in the last decade, worked extensively to classify forest people as ‘forest workers’, to define a ‘forest worker’ and to document the status of forest workers in forest areas.

According to a definition by Prof. Roy Burman, Deputy Registrar, Census of India, adopted in the Second Labour Commission report, forest workers are those primary producers, who are linked to forests for their energy and livelihood needs. They include all groups of people who create, nurture, protect, harvest, pre-process and process forest products for the state and other market forces such as traders and contractors. Thus, people directly or indirectly employed by or serving the Forest Department, traders, contractors and those getting direct or disguised wages from them are primary producers. Primary producers also include forest or taungya villagers or similar groups of people termed as forest labour, traditional food gatherers and hunters, all people within the agrarian or semi-agrarian communities, traditionally using forest areas for jhoom or other subsistence-level cultivation, large numbers of self-employed people, who collect and sell non-timber forest produce to the state agencies, business houses, and local or outside traders. (Status of Forest Workers, Unpublished NFFPFW document.)

Forest workers include all primary producers, irrespective of their caste, race, gender and ethnicity. The definition of a forest worker excludes those sections of forest dwellers that use the forest systems for generating surplus and, therefore, do not come under the category of primary producers.

The issue of the Adivasi being identified as a forest worker is strongly emerging in the rapidly changing relations between the forest community and the forest. That the Adivasis had a deep symbiotic relationship with the forest is well known. The forests were their homeland. They lived in the deep woods in complete harmony with nature. They belonged to the forest and forest belonged to their community. The forest provided them food and livelihood and their cultural expression emerged from this essential source of survival. All their needs were fulfilled by and in the forest; there was no deprivation, no food insecurity and no starvation. Even when the rest of the country suffered serious famines, various forest areas provided food to the tribals and its inhabitants.

Forests were never seen as a source of revenue until the British came. The imperial policies adopted by the British for overseas development led to the rapid alienation of tribals and other forest people from their resource base. The East India Company first attempted to exploit natural wealth to serve the imperial interest by rapid industrialisation and expansion of its trade.  

The Alienation of Forest People from the Forests

The process of alienation and the exclusion of local communities from the forests started during colonial times with entry of industrial and commercial interests. The colonial state enacted the permanent settlement system in 1793, gave themselves control over 57 per cent of the landed area. Other areas were covered by the rayatwari and mohalwari systems. While agricultural lands were mostly controlled through absentee landlords and intermediaries, the forest areas were controlled directly through the Imperial Forest Department, established in 1864, and the Indian Forest Act 1865.

The takeover of forests was not a smooth affair. The state mercilessly attacked the local communities, comprising mainly tribal and Dalit populations, resulting in major upheavals in their lives, including the loss of traditional livelihoods. There was fierce resistance, which started in some areas of Bihar (now Jharkhand) by the affected groups to this onslaught on their sovereignty and their rights. The heroic struggles of Tilka Majhi, Sidhu Kanu, Birsa Munda and others questioned the imperial policies of British in the forests. The British were, therefore, compelled to enact special legislations such as the Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act and the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act in Bihar, which made autonomous governance possible in these areas and also helped quell the revolts. These areas were excluded from the political reforms that were implemented in the rest of the country. Protests in other parts of the country led to the granting of community rights in the forests, for example, the formation of van panchayats in Uttar Pradesh. The practice continues till date.

When the East India Company and the British government took over the Indian forests, forests became commodities. People living in forests and thus ecologically linked with the forest habitats were displaced en masse. The sustained, commercial exploitation of forests resulted in the degradation of habitats and shattered the food and energy bases of traditional communities. In some places, new agricultural areas and settlements replaced forests. The remaining forests started losing their natural vegetation after exotic species of commercially valuable trees were planted and declared out-of-bounds for the communities. The introduction of scientific forest management laws not only gave the new Forest Department unlimited powers to take over any forest area but also declared further use of the forests by traditional communities illegal. Forests were classified as reserved, protected, private and community forests. The rights of the forest dwellers were converted into concessions and, subsequently, these concessions were also removed in many parts of the country. The famous Indian Forest Act (IFA) was enacted in 1927 to establish full control over the forests by the British. 

Colonial Legacy in Forest Areas — the Forest Villages

Some sections of the displaced people were housed in the new forest villages established from 1890 to ensure an uninterrupted supply of free labour in diverse forestry activities such as logging, commercial plantation and fire fighting. With the indiscriminate felling of the natural forests, the British adopted ‘scientific forestry’, for which German scientists were invited. German scientist Dietrich Brandis planned to regenerate the forests through silvicultural techniques, that is, the growing of crops between the plantations to make the land fertile for trees to grow well. Landless workers were brought from nearby villages to be settled in the forest villages, or taungya villages, as labourers. They were treated as bonded labour and not as industrial wage workers. The strong feudal nature of the colonial forest administration kept the forest workers in check and thwarted the growth of the class for long.

The emergence and growth of the new Indian nation state after the political independence of the country brought greater misery to the forest workers. The new state retained all the old forest laws and made them more stringent, in violation of Article 13 of the Indian Constitution. The Forest Department took over the management of the village commons, gram sabha lands, unused land scanty forests and the plantations that were home to jhoom cultivators, Adivasis, Dalits and other poor communities. The lands acquired by the Forest Department were declared as reserve forests, resulting in major conflict between the state and the tribals. The original inhabitants of these areas were labelled ‘encroachers’. In the name of production forestry, the depletion of the natural forests went on unabated. A series of new development projects led to more wanton destruction of forests and the large-scale displacement of forest dwellers across the country.

In reality, both traditional communities and migrants faced an uncertain future. Forests were vanishing as a new breed of traders and contractors joined hands with an increasingly corrupt forest administration, and the raj of the forest mafia started. Official and unofficial destruction of forests not only resulted in more displacements but also irrevocably destroyed the ecology of several traditional communities. Degraded forests offered nothing, and because of the depleting water levels and the loss of soil nutrients, agricultural production declined, food became scarce and non-timber forest produce vanished. Poverty, unemployment and starvation forced large sections of both migrants and tribals to become wage labourers under the forest mafia, thus completing the process of pauperisation of the forest people of the country. (Ghosh, S., Struggle of Forest Workers and Contemporary Socio-political Realities, Draft document for circulation among the NFFPFW constituents and fraternal organisations.)

Forest Legislation — Violation of the ‘Right to Live’

Various new legislations were brought in. Forest workers were perceived to be the biggest threat to the conservation of the forests. The enactment of the Forest Conservation Act 1980 suspended whatever access people possessed to the forests. The Earth Summit, held in 1972 in Stockholm, brought in another set of legislations geared to protecting the delicate ecosystem and wildlife. To preserve wildlife and the environment, the Indian government enacted the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972, and many national parks and sanctuaries came into existence. This Act completely forbade the entrance of forest dwelling communities into the forests and many were evicted from the forests forcefully.

Since 1998, the NFFPFW and other groups have been demanding a comprehensive legislation for this special group that has been denied their basic ‘right to live’, under Article 21, and ‘right to equality’, under Article 14 of our Constitution. Basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity, schools, drinking water and medical facilities too are not available. Schools run by the Forest Department were shut down in the 1980s in forest villages. Many forest dwellers still do not have the right to vote in panchayat elections. And most of these villagers are not allowed to construct pucca houses.

Revolts and many forms of protests followed the denial of basic constitutional rights. Tribals and forest dwelling people were branded ‘naxalites’ resulting in serious human rights violation in many parts of the country. The failure of the Indian state to extend land reform policies to the forest areas has been the cause for the aggression of the forest people. The Forest Department still holds 23 per cent of the total land mass and acts as a biggest zamindar in the country. (Roma, Field notes on forest villages)

The onslaught of the global capital on Indian forests in the form of the Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, by the developed countries is another problem. The latest innovation in global ‘conservation’ programmes is the ‘carbon plantation’. A carbon plantation is a planted forest of quick growing trees supposedly good for the absorption of carbon gases in the atmosphere. This global environment politics imposed by the developed countries on the developing nations is again an attempt to mortgage the people’s livelihood and their habitats. The onslaught of global politics has to be resisted. (Ghosh, S., Struggle of Forest Workers and Contemporary Socio-political Realities, Draft document for circulation among the NFFPFW constituents and fraternal organisations.)

New Forest Bill and Struggle of Forest Workers

The class struggle in forest areas is intensifying and new class formations are taking place. NFFPFW believes that the struggle in the forest areas is essentially a working class struggle, and the struggle for forest rights and its control are political and cultural issues. Though activists and groups have been successful in pressuring the UPA government to enact the Schedule Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Bill, 2006) in December 2006, the struggle continues. (Status of Forest Workers, Unpublished NFFPFW document.)