Which effort has been made to remove tribal problems?
Answers
Answer:
Several research studies have revealed that stewardship by forest-dwelling communities considerably slows the rate of forest degradation. Since mitigating and adapting to climate change requires sustainable forests management, the tribal people who have been living in and around the forest for millennia could play a key role.
But this proven logic is highly criticised by conservationists as they firmly believe that the presence of tribal communities in the forest is deleterious for the wildlife and ecosystem. And many countries’ governments often encourage eviction of tribal communities with an agenda to boost safari, create protected areas and attract tourism. In the process, the tribal communities continue to pay the brutal price for conservation.
“It has been estimated that 50 per cent of protected areas worldwide have been established on lands traditionally occupied and used by tribal people,” said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “For over a century, conservation has resulted in cultural destruction and large-scale displacements of tribal people from their ancestral lands.”
Let us revisit the pitiable condition of tribal communities across India and Cameroon, with a special focus on their status of land rights and tyrannical measures adopted by governments to alienate tribals from their ancestral land and forest.
Eviction in the name of conservation
Taken for instance, the recent decision by the Supreme Court in February has been severely condemned by human and tribal rights activists. The country’s apex judicial system has ordered to evict more than one million forest dwelling people, in case their application has been rejected under Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
“It is important to re-investigate the rejected cases and aid applicants to secure their genuine rights under FRA,” said Sandeep Kumar Pattnaik, a Bhubaneswar-based researcher. “FRA clearly says the gram sabha is supreme in deciding the claims under the Act.”
Thanks to the collective advocacy by several activist groups, the SC was forced to stay its earlier decision. However, this is not the first case in India where the tribal communities have been asked to leave their homes in the name of conservation.
In 2014, around 450 families from indigenous Baiga and Gond communities were evicted to protect tigers in the Kanha Tiger Reserve. “Many affected families did not receive compensation and rehabilitation benefits as assured by the government,” claimed tribal activists.
“Baiga communities who have carefully managed the tiger’s habitats over generations are annihilated by forced evictions,” said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International, a UK-based international organisation that campaigns for rights of indigenous tribal people and uncontacted people, said. “The tribal communities were not involved in poaching, but they were the best conservationists.”
Similarly, in 2017, the government destroyed around 8,000 homes and forcefully evicted nearly 40,000 people from protected areas. For instance, in April 2017, more than 148 houses were demolished and 156 families were evicted from Thatkola and Sargodu Forest Reserve in Karnataka, as per the SC orders. Also in Assam, more than 1,000 people from Bodo, Rabha and Mishing tribal communities were forcefully evicted from the Orange National Park in the same year.
According to a research conducted by Housing and Land Rights Network in 2018, “In a majority of reported eviction cases, state authorities did not follow due process established by national and international standards.” The research also revealed that, “All cases of forced eviction resulted in multiple and often gross human rights violations.”
Cameroon sails in the same boat
What has happened in India with the tribal people is also happening all over the world — hounding of the weak and exploitation of the forest land and natural resources — tribals are the worst victims. In this context, the condition of tribals in Cameroon, a central African country, is also not satisfactory despite the fact that the country is a signatory of the ‘UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People’.
Majority of the tribal people in Cameroon live in or around forest areas often rich with minerals, oil and timbers. Of country’s 22.5 million hectares of forest area, 17.5 million are classified as productive forests and are being allocated to logging companies, according to the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Cameroon.
The Cameroonian government has already granted several mining contracts and logging rights to foreign companies.
PLEASE MARK AS BRILLIANT
Answer:
In short, the main problems of the tribals are poverty, indebtedness, illiteracy, bondage, exploitation, disease and unemployment. After independence, tribal problems and tribal unrest have become politicised. An articulate and effective political elite have emerged in several tribal areas.