Media alert tribal rights I. The draft tribal rights bill The draft tribal rights bill is not about wildlife versus people, but about whether we shall give people what is theirs to hold and manage. The draft Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights Bill) 2005 is in the eye of the storm and in imminent danger of being scuttled: a campaign by some conservationists and parliament members has turned the bill into a battle of people versus wildlife -- which it is not. The issue needs close scrutiny: The bill is meant to hand back rights to tribals over land and forest produce that they have traditionally inhabited and used for sustenance and continue to do so even today. But the Union ministry of environment and forests, which has joined in on the side of the anti-bill lobby, claims that only it has the right to decide who gets the land and who does not. But the ministry has an abysmal record of settling the thousands of land settlement litigation that it prefers to call 'encroachment cases'. By its own admission in court in July 2004, the ministry commits that there are unsettled rights of the tribals in state-owned forests. The ministry goes on to admit that the state is committed to recognition of these rights. It is these unsettled cases that the bill wants to bring an equitable end to. It does not apportion any forest area to 'encroachers'. It merely says that those who have been living in forests for decades and were in the past declared 'encroachers' become owners of their land, again. We must understand that India's forests survive where tribals subsist and India's forests thrive where tribals are empowered to benefit economically from them. The anti-bill lobby claims it would mean apportioning away prime forestland. It claims that with 80 million tribals getting 2.5 ha land per family, two-third of India's forests will be handed over. But as the bill clearly states, only existing habitations of forest-dwelling tribes are to be legalised, no new forests are to be handed out. This is not more than two per cent of India's forestland. This bill promises to usher in the most powerful economic reform that the UPA government can bring about in this parliament session. It has to be done with complete transparency, and it has to be done now. Some members of the committee which worked on the draft bill, who could throw more light on the issue are: a. Madhu Sarin, Chandigarh, Environment activist and expert on forest management and tribal rights history, Ph 172-2741429, 2742417, 2740339, Email msarin@sancharnet.in, msarin@satyam.net.in b. Pradip Prabhu Kashtakari Sangathana, Thane, Ph: 022-252822760, E-mail: pradip_prabhu@yahoo.com; he is a prominent tribal rights activist and an expert on the settlements in Maharashtra c. Sanjay Upadhyay Lawyer, Enviro-Legal Defence Firm, Noida, Ph 95120-2517248, Email su@vsnl.com Appeared in Media Alert 6, May 13, 2005