Abstract
This paper asks whether the Forest Rights Act (FRA) passed by the Government of India in 2006 could provide effective access and ownership rights to land and forests for the adivasi communities of Kerala, thereby leading to an enhancement of their entitlements. The study was conducted in Wayanad district using qualitative methods of data collection. The FRA, it would seem, raised high expectations in the State Government circles and the Adivasi community. This was at a time when the Government of Kerala was grappling with a stalemate in the implementation of its own laws on adivasi land rights, due to the organized resistance from the settler-farmers and the non-adivasi workers employed in the plantations that were established to provide employment for adivasis. Our analysis shows that due to the inherent problems within the FRA as well as its complex and contested implementation, the FRA could not achieve the promised objectives of correcting historical injustice and provide effective land rights to the adivasis of Wayanad. The role played by the conservation lobby in thwarting the efforts of the Left government is discussed. While granting nominal possession rights (Record of Rights) to the dwelling sites of a small community of adivasis (Kattunaicker, who were traditional forest dwellers), the FRA has failed to provide them with substantive access and ownership rights to land and forests. The adivasis who were able to gain some rights to land have been those who were involved in land occupation struggles. The study reiterates the importance of struggles in gaining effective rights in land.
Highlights
The ancestral lands of the indigenous people of India1 have been appropriated by various means, including a series of legislations, for commercial, conservation and other purposes, since the early part of the nineteenth century
The objective of this paper is to examine whether the Forest Rights Act (FRA) passed by the Government of India in 2006 has provided effective access and ownership rights to land and forests for the adivasi communities of Wayanad district, Kerala, thereby leading to an enhancement of their entitlements
We critically examine some of the provisions of the FRA relevant to Kerala and how they are being implemented in Wayanad district
Summary
The ancestral lands of the indigenous people of India (the adivasis) have been appropriated by various means, including a series of legislations, for commercial, conservation and other purposes, since the early part of the nineteenth century. Kjosavik and Shanmugaratnam (2015, 2007, 2004) have documented and analysed the history of dispossession and displacement of the adivasi communities of Wayanad, Kerala, while at the same time highlighting the historically diverse nature of adivasi land claims in different regions of the country (Kjosavik and Shanmugaratnam 2015) Viewed against this backdrop, the Forest Rights Act 20062 (FRA 2006) would seem to represent a remarkable shift in official policy. The primary objective of the CFR seems to be to entrust responsibility for conservation to the adivasis With these provisions, the FRA, while legalising property rights to a limited extent of land for adivasis, could potentially take away or alienate large tracts of land and forests for other uses.
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