Forest Rights Denied: Himachal Farmers Left in the Lurch. Farners, Parties, Lambasts HP Forest PrCF and Retired Forest Officials for their ill-conceived Legal War from Urban Mansions
Shimla: As the Himachal government finally initiates workshops in Shimla, Mandi, and Dharamshala to sensitise officials on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 — a long-pending demand by farmers and tribal rights groups — a fresh controversy has erupted.
The issue needs to be understood in all its context-,traditionally, historically and Legally. The Forest Conservation Act 1980 has branded all wastelands as Forests. If Act sats so, then same Act, Forest Rights Act, 2006 also has uphold forest rights of the communitues including forest dwellers and tribals. If all wasteland are forest land then in the same legal spirit, all village communities living around the forests are forest dwellers and hence have the Right to own the land and have rights to have over forest resources.
Historically, the ruling elites had alloted best and fertile land to their kith and kin and majority of village communities live on the edge.
Due to cataclysmic plgue, droughts and natural disasters over the centuries led the forest village communities to shift from one place to other safer places but near the forests.
These once cultivated tracts of land have traces of cultivation in Shimla, Kullu, Kangra, Chamba, Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur districts as well. Today these lands have forest grown-up there.
Subsequently, government used to allot nautor land to the villagers, taking care of the expanded families, a practice that came to halt when the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 came into force.
After independence, Bhoodan Andolan and land ceiling Act, and return of the land to Mujaras, changed the status of land insignificantly for the vast majority of poor villagers who used to eke out living from the forest, guchhi, Banaksha, herbs and the like and graze their sheep and goats in the forests.
The Notification issued by the HP Pr chief Conservator of Forests has created a piquant situation in the state willing to find a way out from the present morass.
Today, Central Committee member of the CPI(M) and former Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat has slammed the directives recently issued by the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, calling them “completely illegal, unconstitutional and an insult to the genuine efforts” being made by the state government to extend forest rights to the most marginalised.
The CPI(M), which has now officially joined the protest, has demanded immediate withdrawal of the controversial guidelines that contradict the very essence of FRA.
The party reminded the government that the Forest Rights Act was born out of decades of struggle, with Left parties playing a crucial role during the UPA regime to make FRA, MGNREGA and RTI part of the national policy framework.
In her letter to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Brinda Karat pointed out that the said officer, by misquoting the Supreme Court and arbitrarily limiting FRA claims only to the landless or “economically vulnerable,” is blatantly rewriting the Act.
“Such directions are not just illegal; they’re dangerous,” she wrote.
“The Act doesn’t ask for Aadhaar cards for community elders verifying land use; such bureaucratic hurdles are being weaponised to deny the poor their rights.”
Retrospectively, it was the then BJP government in 2001–2002 which had brought in the policy to regularise land occupied by farmers, under which over 1.56 lakh farmers had applied with hope and legal backing.
Now, these very farmers face the threat of eviction, after a self-styled ‘protector’ of Shimla forests and vocal critic of government policies moved the High Court, painting thousands as “encroachers.”
Farmers in Himachal have long protested being branded as ‘encroachers’ on their own land — land they’ve cultivated for generations, land that barely adds up to a few biswas and bighas today due to increasing family sizes and shrinking holdings.
Their relationship with the forest is one of coexistence, not destruction. These communities collect fuelwood for their hearths, fodder for their cattle, and herbs for traditional medicines — all while being the first responders to forest fires and natural disasters, not the retired Janglati babus or serving conservators living in plush homes in metros and cities.
Ironically, it is these very former forest officials, now far removed from the realities of mountain life, who have filed petitions in the Supreme Court questioning the legality of FRA — a law that could be a lifeline for lakhs of tribal and poor farming families in Himachal and other Himalayan states and across India.
“These bureaucrats enjoyed fat paychecks, continue to draw hefty pensions, and now act like self-styled guardians of forests,” says Sanjay Chauhan, from Seb Utpadak Sangh , who is among leaders, leading the fight of the deprived farmers in Himachal.
“But they have no idea what it means to be thrown out of your land, to watch your ancestral home sealed, or to fight every season to keep farming alive in fragile hills.”
Farmer organisations like Seb Utpadak Sangh, Himachal Kisan Sabha, and Himalayan Niti Abhiyan have warned the government that unless the FRA is implemented in its true spirit and encroachment cases withdrawn, protests will only intensify in days to come.
They have lauded the CM’s assurance during the Vidhan Sabha budget session that the state would plead the case in the Supreme Court in support of farmers — but question why forest department officers continue to sabotage those efforts from within.
Will the Supreme Court listen to these urbane-bred few voices of privilege, or will it stand with the villagers and forest dwellers — the real conservators of Himalayan ecosystems — whose livelihoods depend on this very land?
This is no longer just about land. It’s about dignity, justice, and the survival of a people who’ve nurtured nature, not looted it.
Do the court want village communities as stakeholders in the ecosystems or uprooters and destroyers?
By alienating the villagers from the Forests will go a long way in the destruction of forests.
The court and the government have to make choice right here, right under the Forest Righrs Act, 2006. But, yes, they need to bridal the greedy few. There is no other wayout.
#ForestRightsNow
#HimachalFarmersFight
#EndEvictionsInHills
#BabusVsPeople
#ImplementFRA2006
