7 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Dr Aruna Basu Sarkar: Torchbearer of tribal justice
TIRUCHY: In the deep heartlands of Tamil Nadu's forests, a silent struggle has been playing out for decades — one of survival, identity, and recognition. While the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was passed in 2006 and notified in 2007 to correct historical injustices, its implementation remains a distant dream for many. Seventeen years on, the state of Tamil Nadu still lags behind, and the voices of its tribal communities continue to be stifled.
Dr Aruna Basu Sarkar, a retired Indian Forest Service officer, has been a rare voice persistently advocating for these marginalised communities. With over 30 years of service across various roles — from District Forest Officer to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests — she has witnessed firsthand the systemic negligence and exploitation faced by tribal people from middlemen, government departments, and even local politicians.
'When forests were declared reserve areas, the traditional rights of forest dwellers were never documented. The law aimed to correct this, but in Tamil Nadu, it has remained mostly on paper,' Aruna explained. What's worse, even now, neither the English nor the Tamil edition of the law has been made widely available by the nodal agency — the Tribal Welfare Department.
According to Dr Sarkar, the biggest misunderstanding among forest and revenue officials is equating forest rights with land ownership. 'Most of these forest-dependent communities are landless. What they need is community forest rights — like the right to collect forest produce, graze cattle, or pursue traditional forest-based occupations,' she emphasised.
She also raised concerns about how the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme, introduced in 1997 as a participatory forest management initiative, ended up becoming a tool for exploitation. 'It turned into a system where forest officials and former contractors used tribal labour as bonded labour. These so-called Tribal Village Committees created under JFM have only made things worse,' she alleged.
