Question

why are the forest dwellers know as adivasis​

Answer 1

Forest dwellers, for several reasons have been called “deemed

homeless.” The Forest Rights Act, 2006 stated that a person

would be covered by the legislation if he/she had been residing

primarily in forests or forest land; and was dependent on forests

or forest lands for livelihood. The lack of a comprehensive

definition of the term ‘forest’1makes the people vulnerable to

the vagaries of semantic juggling so often resorted to by

governments to exclude people from claiming their rights.

Further, in order to prove that a person qualifies as a forest

dweller, in the event of him/her not being a member of a

scheduled tribe, s/he must be able to show continuous residence

in a forest for a period of 75 years. There is high improbability

of any forest dweller having any such record. These along with

many other loopholes disable many forest dwellers from claiming

their rightful benefits, illustrating a case of throwing the baby

out with the bathwater. Though the Forest Rights Act makes

community protection of forests legal, the provision is duly

subverted by the forest bureaucracy. Some of the most backward

regions in India are those enmeshed in the Maoist insurgency

areas which coincidentally provide shelter to many tribes. The

lack of interest shown by the Government in ascertaining the

number of forest dwellers indicates towards its highly dislodged

perspective on the issue. Logically, a good governance policy

highlighting the government’s political ambitions would look

to tap into the benefit that this large number could provide in

terms of a vote bank. Moreover forest dwellers gain importance

as they serve as the key to save forests from deforestation and

prevent illegal timber cutting and mining. Despite the various

advantages that forest dwellers help to reap, they are ignored