GRASSROOTS TRIBAL DEMOCRACY AT THE CROSSROADS

A Study of the Implementation of The Panchayat (Extension To The Scheduled Areas) Act
1996 (PESA) in the State of Chhattisgarh

Contents
1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................................1
2. Methodology, Limitations and Structure of Study ..............................................................1
3. History ...................................................................................................................................2
3.1 The Haihays ......................................................................................................................3
3.2 The Colonial Onslaught .....................................................................................................4
3.3 Independence and Immediately After ................................................................................5
3.4 Tribal Revolt .....................................................................................................................7
3.5 Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha ...............................................................................................9
3.6 Formation of Chhattisgarh ............................................................................................... 11
4. Tribal Specific Socio-Economic Situation Analysis ........................................................... 12
5. PESA and the Wider Legal Framework............................................................................. 19
5.1 Indian Legal History ........................................................................................................ 20
5.2 Fifth Schedule ................................................................................................................. 22
5.3 Enactment of PESA ......................................................................................................... 23
5.4 The Samatha Judgment .................................................................................................... 27
5.5 PESA and Other Laws and Regulations ........................................................................... 29
6. Violation of PESA in Chhattisgarh..................................................................................... 30
6.1 Steel Plants ...................................................................................................................... 31
6.2 Power .............................................................................................................................. 39
6.3 Rivers and Dams ............................................................................................................. 42
6.4 Mining ............................................................................................................................ 45
6.5 Forests............................................................................................................................. 48
6.6 Biofuels ........................................................................................................................... 49
6.7 Non-Nationalised Non-Timber Forest Produce and Trader-Moneylenders ....................... 50
6.8 Maoist Movement and Salwa Judum ............................................................................... 51
7. Remedial Action .................................................................................................................. 53
7.1. Environment Protection Act ........................................................................................... 53
7.2 Rehabilitation and Resettlement ...................................................................................... 58
7.3 National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme .............................................................. 68
8. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 69
9. References ............................................................................................................................ 70
10. Glossary and Abbreviations .............................................................................................. 73
 GRASSROOTS TRIBAL DEMOCRACY AT THE CROSSROADS
A Study of the Implementation of The Panchayat (Extension To The Scheduled Areas) Act
1996 (PESA) in the State of Chhattisgarh

1. Introduction
Chhattisgarh is ideally suited for the implementation of the Panchayat (Extension to the
Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 known more popularly by its acronym PESA which provides for the
control of natural resources and development by the tribal gram sabha in tribal areas notified
under Schedule V of the Indian Constitution. There had been a long pre-medieval domination of
the area by tribals and even throughout the medieval period they remained largely independent in
the northern and southern areas of the state. The whole of the present Chhattisgarh state was till
the first millennium of the Christian era under the control of various tribes. The last southern
tract of the Chhotanagpur Plateau and the Maikal and Korea hills constituting the northern hilly
portion of present day Chhattisgarh was dominated by the Oraons, the Pendra platueau and the
North Chhattisgarh plains in the middle were populated mostly by the Baigas and Korwas and
the South Chhattisgarh plains and the Bastar Plateau were peopled by the various subtribes of the
Gonds. The Gonds were in fact the largest tribal group stretching from the Mahakoshal region of
the current Madhya Pradesh down to Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. There was a flourishing
Gond kingdom based in Ratanpur in Bilaspur district which was built on a low material base of
subsistence agriculture or hunting and gathering by most of the tribals (Danda 1977).
The most important aspect of this kingdom was its sustainable communitarian use of
natural resources for a biologically diversified agricultural production. This was made possible
by a decentralised village based governance system which owed only minimal allegiance to the
kingdom in Ratanpur. Consequently the tribals later militantly revolted against the destruction of
this communitarian system and their resultant social, economic and political marginalisation due
to the process of modernisation introduced by the British and carried on by the independent
Indian state. Even today thei tribals' protests are continuing in various forms. However, the sad
reality is that at present PESA is being violated at will by both the administration and the
industrialists desirous of setting up various projects to exploit the rich natural resources in the
tribal areas of the state because despite protests there is not enough overall awareness and
resistance among the once powerful tribals to remedy this sorry situation.

2. Methodology, Limitations and Structure of Study

The present study is a combination of primary and secondary research aimed at
documenting the tragedy of tribal disempowerment that has unfolded in the state so as to be able
to chart out a course of remedial action for the future. The research programme was as follows -
1. Initially the choice had been to use a random sampling frame for selecting the panchayats
to study through primary data collection. However, initial scoping surveys revealed that
the awareness of PESA is extremely low generally throughout the state and it is only in
areas where a few mass organisations or politically inclined NGOs are active that there is
any effort to get the Act implemented. Consequently given the limited scope of the study
instead of a rigorous sampling approach requiring an extensive survey spanning a large
number of panchayats to get a few that had actually engaged in the implementation of
PESA, a few specifically selected case studies have been undertaken.

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 2. The main methodology of primary data collection has been that of focus group
discussions with villagers and activists in the hotspots where there have been mass
protests in the past or there are campaigns still going on against the non-implementation
of PESA. An initial scoping survey was done in the first week of February 2009. This
was followed by two more detailed surveys conducted later. The first was from 15th to
29th March 2009 in the districts of Dantewara, Bastar, Kanker, Raipur, Mahasamund,
Dhamtari, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Kabirdham, Bilaspur, Korba and Janjgir. The second visit
was from 20th to 28th April 2009 in the districts of Koria, Sarguja, Jashpur and Raigarh
followed by informal discussions with various persons regarding the issues arising from
the case studies. A total of twentyone focus group discussions spread over various
locations in the sixteen districts of Chhattisgarh were conducted in these two detailed
survey trips.
3. Secondary research has been conducted on government documents, newspaper reports,
laws and regulations, court judgments and other studies and books relevant to the subject.
4. The situation prevailing in Chhattisgarh is very difficult due to the ongoing civil war
between the State forces and the Naxalites. Consequently it was not possible to get any of
the government functionaries from the lower to the higher levels to speak on record about
the implementation or otherwise of PESA.
The limitation of this study thus is that it only details the more glaring violations of PESA
and related statutes in Chhattisgarh based on selected case studies and presents the point of view
of those affected by the non-implementation of PESA without the views of the government and
administration regarding these issues. So this is more of a mapping exercise and fact finding
report than a rigorous academic study of PESA in Chhattisgarh.
The study begins by tracing the history of the region from the first millennium of the
Christian era when the region first came under the rule of non-tribals to the present time. The
tribal rulers of the region before this being non-literate there are no historical records available
regarding their rule and the only evidence of their rule are the ruins of a seven storey palace and
its associated buildings in Ratanpur. The socio-economic situational analysis of the state is
presented next. This is followed by an analysis of the legal framework and the inter-relations
between PESA and various other statutes as also the case law that has emerged from the
judgments delivered in numerous important litigations in the High Courts and Supreme Court.
After this the specific detailed primary case studies of the more glaring violations of PESA,
Environment Protection Act and the Rehabilitation Policy in Chhattisgarh which have
jeopardised the livelihoods of the tribals are presented. The issue of Maoist violence and the
counter violence of the state is also discussed in this context. Finally, a roadmap for
implementation of PESA and revival of tribal autonomy is chalked out on the basis of the facts
and analysis arising from the study.

3. History
Chhattisgarh or "Chatar Raj" as it is popularly called, was the region of the upper
Mahanadi river valley constituted by the present districts of Rajnandgaon, Kabirdham, Durg,
Raipur, Mahasamund, Bilaspur and Janjgir. The northern and southern parts of Chhattisgarh
remained predominantly under tribal rule till the British times. Thus the history of Chhattisgarh

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is mainly that of the Chatar Raj till the advent of the British who integrated all the areas of the
present Chhattisgarh into the Central Provinces and Berar in the nineteenth century.

3.1 The Haihays

The Chatar Raj region came under the rule of one branch of the Kalchuri dynasty that
came to power in the Mahakoshal region of the present Madhya Pradesh about the ninth century
of the Christian era. The Kalchuris overcame the Gond kings at Ratanpur and took control of the
rich and fertile Mahanadi basin driving the Gonds towards the southern hilly region. Along with
the Kalchuris a non-tribal population came into the Mahanadi basin from the Mahakoshal region
and took control over its fertile agricultural lands. Thereafter this region was ruled continuously
for about eight centuries from roughly 1000 A.D. to 1757 A.D. by a single dynasty which
renamed itself as the Haihays. The Haihays ruled from the old Gond capital of Ratanpur. The
Haihays organised their rule around thirty six garhs or forts and hence the name of the region
from chhattis in Hindi meaning thirty six. Each garh was the centre of administration for a
Chourasi or unit of eighty-four villages. These Chourasis in turn were made up of seven Barwahs
or units of twelve villages. Each village had as its head a Gountiya who was responsible for
revenue collection and general administration. The Gountiya's powers, however, were not
absolute being circumscribed by the decisions of the Gram Panchayat or village council (Shukla
1988). Thus the active role of the village council which is an integral part of tribal societies
continued in the Haihay rule also.
The Haihays were themselves not the conquering type of rulers and were not threatened
by conquest by others either. So their military expenses were minimal. They were also not
extravagant builders of palaces, monuments and temples like the Rajputs and Mughals.
Consequently revenue extracted from farmers was comparatively low. Thus despite being at the
lowest rung of a feudal system the village panchayats had considerable autonomy and could even
regulate the trade within their jurisdiction. This naturally gave the farmers a lot of incentives to
develop a prosperous farming system. The long period of peaceful rule devoid of any wars led to
the development of a fairly egalitarian system that was at the same time productive and
ecologically sustainable.
Traditionally this region, even more than the rest of India, used to thrive in its villages.
Even today the first thing that is bound to strike the eye of an outsider to a village in
Chhattisgarh is the large number of tanks that dot the landscape. Sometimes numbering upto as
many as a hundred and forty-seven, as in the village of Bastar which was the seat of the
princedom of the same name, these tanks used to form the lynchpin of a socio-economic system
that was amazingly sustainable in both economical and ecological terms. These tanks fulfilled
the varied needs for water of the village ranging from drinking and washing to irrigation. The
main purpose of course was the protective irrigation of the staple paddy crop of which more than
seventeen thousand varieties used to be grown resulting in Chhattisgarh being referred to as a
"Dhan Ka Katora" or a bowl of rice (Verma 2002).
These tanks and the agricultural system based on them were maintained through an
elaborate communitarian culture. The celebration of the Agti festival in April every year used to
mark the community expression of this sound ecological sense distilled from centuries of
interaction with Nature. With the start of the festival the whole village would turn out regularly
everyday till all the tanks were cleaned up and deepened. Yet another ritual of the festival was
the exchange of seeds. All the farmers would pool their seeds in a common place. Then seeds of

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different varieties would be exchanged. Farmers from other villages too could come and
exchange seeds. This exchange of seeds supplemented the continous practice of selection and
conservation carried out in the field. In this way a large genetic diversity was maintained and
some part of the harvest would always survive come flood or drought. This community
awareness owed its existence to the unique medieval history of Chhattisgarh.

3.2 The Colonial Onslaught

The demise of this system and the gradual eclipse of rural Chhattisgarh began with the
downfall of the Haihays. The Marathas who annexed the region in 1757 sounded the first
discordant note by substantially hiking the taxes. They ruled from Nagpur in the nearby
Vidarbha region and so took away all the revenue without spending anything on the region apart
from the bare minimum necessary for administration. The British colonialists conquered this
region by defeating the Mararthas in the first quarter of the nineteenth century and promptly
began implementing their oppressive system of land revenue maximisation practised by them all
over India. They also extended their rule to the tribal regions to the north bordering the
Chhotanagpur plateau and to the south over the Bastar plateau. The British instituted a land
revenue system in which Malguzars, the Chhattisgarhi equivalent of the Zamindars, acted as
agents who had to pay a fixed tax to the British with freedom to collect as much as they wished
from the tenants under them (Grant 1870).
This Malguzari system of land revenue collection effectively circumscribed the
independence of the small farmer and also struck at the roots of the vibrant community
partnership of the earlier era. Most of these Malguzars were non-cultivating upper castes brought
in by the British from north and central India who had no interest in the development of
sustainable farming practices whatsoever. They were concerned only with the collection of
revenue as were the British. Moreover a new trade route was opened up to link the region with
the imperial capital in Calcutta and so hasten the exploitation of the rich natural resources of the
region. In the new dispensation traders and moneylenders prospered at the expense of farmers.
The traders of Raipur the present capital city financially supported the British in their fight to
suppress the first war of Indian independence in 1857 while the malguzar class provided it with
moral and logistical support (Ghosh 1985).
The British consistently transported non-tribal people into the hilly forested areas
populated by the tribals from the nearest plains areas to increase the land under settled
agriculture and buttress their earnings from land revenue. Land revenue being the most important
source of funding for the British administrative and military set up this activity of settling non-
tribals in tribal areas was a major policy in the early colonial period giving rise to many battles.
The Gond tribals of these heavily forested areas of the state, were averse to settled cultivation
and vehemently opposed this intrusion and there were many fierce battles leading to their
massacre right from the late 18th century mostly in the Bastar region. The most well-organised
struggle was that of the Gonds of Bastar under the leadership of Gundadhur called the Bhoomkal
rebellion of 1910 (Shukla 1985). This was a systematically organised uprising in which much
pre-planning was done to cut communications by wire and road and the British were surrounded
and forced to the point of surrender. However, they survived by treachery on the part of some of
the Gonds and later the rebellion was ruthlessly put down. This Malguzari system was gradually
extended to the Bastar region also. The whole region was amalgamated with the present

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Vidarbha area of Maharashtra and Mahakoshal and Bundelkhand regions of Madhya Pradesh and
named Central Provinces and Berar by the British.
Thus, the political centre of Chhattisgarh located in the plains area around Raipur and
Bilaspur is numerically dominated by the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and some areas have a
strong Scheduled Caste (SC) concentration. There are still some tribal people in this area but
they are mostly Hinduised and dont even speak their own tribal language. The dominant tribal
regions of Chhattisgarh are on its hilly periphery to the north and south -
1. Oraon, Korwa, Kol, Kamar, Baiga, Bhaina, Pandos and Panika tribes in the northern
hilly regions where a considerable number have converted to Christianity from the
19th century onwards.
2. Maria, Muria, Halba, Dorla, Bhattra, Gond, Sawara and Bhunjia tribes reside in the
southern hilly area mainly in the undivided Bastar region.
The political and economic elite in Chhattisgarh s are mostly upper castes who had
originally come from North India. The political rise of Ravi Shankar Shukla, a Brahmin lawyer
from Sagar in the Bundelkhand region, as a collaborator of the British and the support he
received from traders and princely rulers clearly underlines the marginalisation of the tribals in
the region in the colonial era (Baker 1979).

3.3 Independence and Immediately After

Ravi Shankar Shukla was the first Chief Minister of the Central Provinces region after
independence till his death in 1956. He was followed by D.P. Mishra another north Indian settled
in the Mahakoshal region as the first chief minister of the reorganised Madhya Pradesh in 1956.
Ravi Shankar's son Shyama Charan Shukla was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh from
1969 to 1972, 1975 to 1978 and 1989 to 1990. The descendants of such non-tribal migrants into
Chhattisgarh continue to hog political power in the state at present.
Not surprisingly given this skewing of political power towards a migrant upper caste
elite, the coming of independence in 1947 only aggravated the condition of the poor. The formal
abolition of the Malguzari system was not accompanied by any far-reaching land reforms on the
ground. The former Malguzars (the most prominent among these becoming the new rulers), used
a variety of stratagems to retain control of most of the land. In the nineteen sixties the green
revolution was set rolling with the introduction of high-yielding varieties of rice and heavily
irrigated, chemical fertilizer and pesticide based farming. A number of large and medium sized
dams were built to improve irrigation facilities to meet the higher demand for water. Within a
few years a primarily self-sustaining agricultural system was changed into one producing for the
national and international markets with external inputs. Traders and rice millers reaped the
benefits. The most infamous being the Jain brothers who made their millions initially by
exporting rice but who later diversified into smuggling of foreign exchange and laundering of
black money. They were subsequently implicated in a criminal case for having laundered black
money for most of the important leaders of the major political parties in the country in a big
scandal that shook the political firmament in the nineteen nineties, which like most such cases
eventually came to nought for lack of sufficient evidence (Mahalingam 1998)
Similar to the situation in the rest of India and especially in the state of Punjab (Shiva
1991), the green revolution in Chhattisgarh too has only served to impoverish the small farmer in
the long run. Today with decreasing yields, proneness to pest attacks and increasing costs of

5
inputs like chemical fertilizers, electricity and pesticides, it has become an albatross around his
neck leading to a virtual epidemic of suicides by farmers laden with debt. A maverick
agricultural scientist Dr R.H. Riccharia referred to his own field research to point out that there
were indigenous rice varieties in Chhattisgarh, which were far higher yielding and pest resistant
than the foreign hybrids that were being introduced (Richharia and Govindaswamy 1990).
However, his voice was a lonely and poor one, which got easily drowned out in the cacophony
and heavy international funding in support of the green revolution. The introduction of the profit
motive among farmers and the monetisation of the rural economy has been a blow to the
community spirit and the traditional consensus based Gram Panchayats have lost their
cohesiveness. The practices of voluntary labour to maintain the village tanks and the exchange of
indigenous seeds during the Agti festival have gradually withered away leading to a decay of the
tanks and a serious erosion of genetic diversity.
Nothing is more symbolic of this all round decay than the neglected condition of the once
thriving village tanks which used to be the mainstay of the rural economy in yesteryears. Many
tanks have dried up. The few that remain have as a result been subjected to heavier pressure than
is healthy for them. Often humans and animals bathe in the same tank. Pesticide and fertilizer
residues as well as human and animal wastes make their way into the tanks. Most deplorable,
however, is the decrease in the protective irrigation potential of the tanks, which has meant that
in years of less than normal rainfall, crops fail and drought results. The focus group discussion
held in Jepra village in Kanker district on 18th March 2009 revolved around the decay of the
many tanks in the village. Anandi Ram Khaperde one of the village elders and an enterprising
farmer related that in his childhood and youth people would go in teams during the summer from
one tank to another cleaning them of their silt while singing songs all the time. It used to be a
festival atmosphere that they looked forward to.
Industrial development only added to the woes of the bucolic Chhattisgarhis. It all started
with the setting up of the Bhilai Steel Plant by the government in the nineteen fifties (Srinivasan
1984). This was soon followed by various other projects like the aluminium extraction plant at
Korba (Dhagamvar, De and Verma 2003), thermal power stations, cement plants and the mining
on a massive scale of iron ore, bauxite, coal and limestone to provide the raw materials. All this
involved displacement of rural people, mainly tribals, without commensurate increase in
employment. These industrial plants and mines required for their operation and management
relatively high skilled people who had to be brought in from outside. The local Chhattisgarhis,
especially the tribals, mostly got low paid casual employment or were left out totally from this
process. Apart from these basic industries there was little downstream industrialisation to utilise
their products. Instead the steel, aluminium, coal, cement and power were transported to Bhopal,
Indore, Kolkata and Mumbai for further processing and building. The iron-ore mined from
Bailadila in south Bastar was not even made into steel but was shipped raw to Japan without
processing.
A stunted industrial growth has taken place without any significant forward and
backward linkages within the region that could create employment opportunities for a large
number of people. In recent times sponge iron plants which use a technology of steel making that
has become obsolete the world over has greatly increased the problems of the people. The
ecological costs of such a fast and unplanned industrialization are being felt throughout the state
as will be described later. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was a great proponent of planned
industrial development. While inaugurating the first chemical fertilizer plant of the country in

6
1954 in Sindri in Bihar he had hailed it as being a temple of modern India and had gone on to say
that India needed many more such temples (Nehru 1958). The first and most important such
modern temple in Chhattisgarh was the Bhilai Steel Plant. To meet the water requirements of this
plant, which could not be met from local sources in Durg district anymore, another temple had to
be built - the Gangrel dam on the river Mahanadi in Dhamtari district.
The rural people in Chhattisgarh have found a way out of the havoc caused by lopsided
and destructive development by either resorting to making bidis (which are handmade cigarettes)
or migrating to other states in search of employment. So far and wide do they go in search of
employment that some Chhattisgarhi labourers had the misfortune of being killed by armed
separatists in the northern insurgency prone state of Kashmir in 1999. Bidis are made by rolling
tobacco inside leaves of the tendu tree and tying them with string. This is a widespread cottage
industry carried out through a system of outsourcing whereby bidi makers, mostly women, are
supplied with the tendu leaves, tobacco and string by contractors and get paid by piece rate for
the bidis they make. The tendu leaves are also collected during the summer season by the rural
poor on a piece rate basis. The bidi makers are totally at the mercy of the agents who act as
middlemen on behalf of the bidi factory and supply the raw materials to them, collect the
finished bidis and make the payment. Despite this the reality is that after all this exploitation the
money earned from making bidis was till recently much higher than the daily wages that could
be earned as agricultural labourers (Rahul 1999). Matters have changed somewhat now with the
implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme despite various problems
as will be discussed later in more detail.

3.4 Tribal Revolt

The tribals of Bastar had been having a raw time ever since the suppression of the
Bhoomkal rebellion earlier in 1910 and this increased with the vastly greater influx of non-tribals
into the region for various developmental activities. This influx was aggravated by the
resettlement of Bengali refugees from the erstwhile East Pakistan after independence in the
Dandakaranya region of Bastar. Apart from this the initiation of the iron-ore mining project in
Bailadila too drew in large numbers of non-tribals. Thus it was not surprising that the tribals
began protesting soon after independence. However, the disaffection of the tribals with these
developments found a rather traditional non-tribal leadership for its expression. The king of
Bastar, Prabir Chandra Bhanjdeo, was an eccentric non-tribal person who was opposed to the
new order that came into force after independence in which the princes were deprived of their
earlier powers and taking advantage of the anger of the tribals he began exhorting his erstwhile
tribal subjects to disobey the new government. He would hold a daily durbar or audience in his
palace and distribute currency notes of various denominations to the tribals who gathered there.
Apart from this he used his considerable influence as the head priest of the Danteshwari temple
whose Goddess Kali had a big hold over the tribal population to propitiate the Goddess in their
favour in times of agricultural crises through "yagnas" or fire sacrifices. He became extremely
popular as a result. Naturally this brought him into disfavour with the leaders of the new
government and their colonial minded bureaucrats who wanted to establish their own legitimacy
in the minds of the tribals (Sundar 1999).
The Madhya Pradesh Government deprived him of his estate in 1953 for his anti-
government activities with the excuse that he would whittle it away through debauchery and
charity. This prompted Bhanjdeo to increase his efforts at channelising the discontent of the

7
tribals against the state through the formation of a mass organisation in 1955 - Adivasi Kisan
Mazdoor Sangh. Initially the Congress party made a compromise and decided to support him and
his supporters for election as MLAs in 1957 and they won overwhelmingly. However, since even
after this his estate was not restored to him, he resigned and continued with his organisation of
the tribals against the state now under the name Adivasi Seva Dal. Disregarding warnings from
the government he set up a parallel administration right down to the village level which
campaigned against the economic and political power of the non-tribal people who had come
from outside and dominated the Congress party, the higher echelons of the bureaucracy and trade
and commerce. The year 1960 saw an increase in activities of the Adivasi Seva Dal in the form
of forcible take over of the land of non-adivasis and also of government land. In a bid to strike
some fear into the tribals the government brought in reinforcements of special armed police and
threatened Bhanjdeo with de-recognition as ex-ruler and so also the loss of the Privy Purse that
he was being given annually by the state for having acceded to the Indian Union at the time of
independence. This only aggravated the situation and Bhanjdeo went to meet the Home Minister
in Delhi and warn him that state violence against them and his de-recognition would leave the
tribals of Bastar in turn with no alternative but to de-recognise the Madhya Pradesh Government.
The King was arrested on the way while returning to Bastar from this meeting in
February 1961 under preventive detention provisions and sent to jail. Immediately the Adivasi
Seva Dal launched an agitation for his release and began chasing traders away from the weekly
markets leading to confrontation with the police. On March 31 st 1961 there was a major
confrontation in the market village of Lohandiguda in which thirteen people were killed in
unwarranted police firing and scores of others arrested and indicted for charges of armed rioting
and attempt to murder. The Additional Sessions Judge of Jagdalpur later dismissed the case
against those arrested concluding that there was no cause for the wanton firing resorted to by the
police. Even though the state went on appealing perversely against it the High and Supreme
Courts too upheld the lower court's decision thus putting their seal on the culpability of the
administration. The Lohandiguda incident was to set the ball rolling for the final tragic act of
rebellion of the tribals of Bastar in the nineteen sixties before they began to mobilise again two
decades later under the leadership of the Naxalites (Sundar op cit).
Bhanjdeo was released from jail in April in 1961 and was given a rousing reception on
his arrival in Jagdalpur. Thereafter he became even more strident in his demand for justice for
the tribals, especially for action to be taken against the officials responsible for the Lohandiguda
massacre. In the 1962 general elections six members of his organisation were elected as MLAs
and one as the only MP from Bastar completely routing the Congress party. This was the time
when the whole country was going through a food crisis due to successive failure of monsoons
and in Bastar too the price of rice the staple had begun to increase. Thus the tribals led by
Bhanjdeo began agitating for provision of rice at subsidised prices in sufficient quantity and this
intensified as the situation deteriorated from year to year. The Central Government at that time
had to import grains to tide over the crisis, which had assumed nationwide proportions.
However, since the distribution of these food grains was a time consuming process and a
backward and huge state like Madhya Pradesh faced severe logistical problems in early 1966, the
State Government imposed a levy of rice on the cultivators with the intention of trying to procure
as much as possible at the local level within the districts and obviate the need for allotments from
the Central Government, which were hard to come by.

8
 This was rightly felt to be unjust by the tribals of Bastar who were anyway in a deficit
situation. A massive movement started for the repeal of this levy and Bhanjdeo himself launched
into a prolonged fast in February 1966. In the villages and markets, people refused to give the
levy and fought with the police to prevent this procurement. A remarkable fact about this
struggle was the tremendous participation of women in the mass actions to prevent the
procurement of the levy. There were innumerable rallies and demonstrations throughout the
district against this unfair order. The government instead of bowing to the legitimate demands of
the people brought in additional police forces with the intent of crushing the agitation and so set
up the scene for the tragic end to a militant mass movement of the tribals of Bastar. On March
25th 1966 a massive rally was planned in Jagdalpur and the people began collecting on the palace
grounds armed with bows and arrows disregarding the prohibitory orders against public
assembly that had been clamped by the administration. The inevitable skirmish, given the
tinderbox situation, started between the adivasis and the police in the afternoon and as had
happened before in the Lohandiguda incident it ended with the massacre of twelve people
including Bhanjdeo in police firing.

3.5 Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha

The other important tribal movement of note against the depredations of misgovernance
in the post independence era is that of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM). The Morcha had
its beginnings in the fight against some more unholy acts done to set up the first modern temple
of Chhattisgarh. It started as a trade union, Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh in 1977 in the
struggles of tribal contract workers at the captive iron-ore mines of the Bhilai Steel Plant at Dalli
in Durg district demanding better working conditions and wages. The plant management, instead
of employing regular workers and paying them decent wages had adopted the abhorrent practice
of hiring labourers through contractors at a cheap rate. A decade long struggle was waged from
the mid nineteen seventies till the mid nineteen eighties during which many workers laid down
their lives in police firing and attacks by goons of labour contractors while taking part in strikes.
Finally the workers got their rights acknowledged by the Bhilai Steel Plant management.
The unique feature of this struggle was that it broke out of the narrow confines of
standard trade unionism and encompassed the whole lives of its members. Campaigns were
carried out against the two most debilitating problems that beset poor labourers in India -
alcoholism and debt bondage to usurious moneylenders. Women were mobilised both to stop the
brewing and selling of liquor and to form micro-credit groups so as to alleviate these problems.
They also began addressing the problems of patriarchal oppression. A hospital was set up with
contributions from the members that apart from providing treatment also developed a community
health programme to increase health awareness. On the cultural front, research was conducted to
unearth instances of people's struggles in the history of Chhattisgarh that had been glossed over
by the mainstream historians. New literature in the form of songs and plays was created and
disseminated through repertory troupes to project a positive alternate image of Chhattisgarh that
could stand up to the modern urban culture being continually propagated through the mainstream
media. The Morcha inspired by its leader Shankar Guha Niyogi began to fan out among the
nearby villages and also the ancillary industrial units in and around Bhilai from the late nineteen
eighties.
The Morcha was formed in 1982 when the prevailing forms of development and
governance were pinpointed as the root causes of all the ills of the people of Chhattisgarh. Not

9
only did these bypass the livelihood interests of the majority but was also destructive of the
environment. The industrial area in Bhilai was marked as the local source of most of this mal-
development. Thus, it was realised that any movement for thoroughgoing change in the
Chhattisgarh region could not succeed without involving the labouring masses there. A four-
pronged strategy was worked out. The thrust in the industrial regions would have to be to try and
get labour and environmental laws implemented. In the villages the stress would have to be on
reviving the traditional community spirit and the environment friendly agricultural activities that
went with it. Simultaneously steps would have to be taken to get a better deal for farmers in the
agricultural input and product markets where traders were invariably cheating them. The third
front would have to be against the corrupt and repressive bureaucracy which had been inherited
from the British and which was totally insensitive to the needs of the people. Finally, an
ideological and cultural onslaught would have to be launched against modern industrial and
agricultural development by involving the intelligentsia. An alternative vision of a free
Chhattisgarh would have to be formulated that was radically different from that of the political
and economic elite. This was extremely important, as the ideology of modern development had
so hegemonised the masses that it was hard to initiate mass action to challenge it. The struggles
conducted by the CMM had served to strengthen their basic understanding that just the creation
of a separate state of Chhattisgarh without a radical change in the form of development and
governance was not going to bring about an improvement in the lives of most of the people.
The Morcha had consequently intensified its participation in the politics of the village
Panchayats so as to strike at centralisation from below. These Panchayats have lost their
traditional character and have become a microcosm of the larger political arena that is beset by
corruption and act as nurseries for the breeding of cadres for the mainstream political parties.
The Morcha had begun a process of reversing this trend by reinvigorating the traditional
consensus based Panchayat as a preliminary stage in its battle against the present over-
centralised system. Kautilya, the famous political analyst and statesman of ancient India, had
advised Chandragupta, the first great all Indian emperor who set up the Maurya dynasty, who
was despondent after having been defeated in battle by the powerful king Nanda early on in his
career, that it was foolish to plunge one's hand into the centre of a bowl of hot rice and that he
should instead pick the cooler grains on the side first (Sharmasastry 1924). The Morcha had
reaped rich dividends as a consequence of this sage strategy as its adivasi leader Janaklal Thakur
had been able to win the Dondi-Lohara assembly seat of the Madhya Pradesh Legislature in
1985. The CMM was unique in that it combined "sangharsh" (economic and political struggles)
with "nirman" (developmental and cultural renewal activities) functioning democratically under
a collective leadership which had a clear political vision of an alternative social set up and the
means to achieve it (Sadgopal and Namra 1993).
However, overall due to a lack of unity and awareness among the deprived classes no
sustained articulated movement was built up for the creation of a separate Chhattisgarh along the
lines being pursued by the CMM. Instead it was the non-tribal political elites which put forward
the idea of a separate Chhattisgarh that would benefit them further through the exploitation of
the economic potential of the region, one of the richest in the country in terms of natural
resources, in the changed scenario arising from liberalisation where state governments could
interact directly with national and international capital for the industrial development of the state.

10
3.6 Formation of Chhattisgarh
When the Parliament was debating the bill for the formation of the states of Jharkhand
and Chhattisgarh there was some mention of the creation of a larger tribal state comprising more
of the tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Specifically, the inclusion of the districts of Shahdol, Sidhi, Mandla, Dindori and Umaria in
Madhya Pradesh was demanded so as to give a more pronounced tribal character to the state of
Chhattisgarh. However, eventually the delimitation was carried out taking into consideration
only the areas where the Chhattisgarhi language is spoken. Thus, in the final analysis the tribal
populace of Chhattisgarh are promoted more as a tourist label for their exotic lifestyles rather
than as an expression of the prominence of ST communities in the state either numerically or
politically. Instead it is the rich natural resources of the state that mostly are to be found in the
tribal dominated areas that are offered up to potential investors at rock bottom prices as will be
described in detail later.
The Scheduled Tribes (ST) constitute 31.8% of the population of the state whereas the
OBCs constitute 50.4% and the SCs 12%. The new State has 34 seats reserved for Scheduled
Tribes of a total of 90 assembly constituencies. Due to the rivalry between the Upper Caste
political elite of the Congress party at the time of formation of Chhattisgarh in 2000 a tribal, Shri
Ajit Jogi, was made the Chief Minister of the new state. However, after the first election in 2003
with the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the formal balance of power shifted back to
the upper caste elite. In the newly elected government in 2008 also Thakurs, Baniyas and
Brahmins dominate. Even though 70% of the BJP MLAs come from tribal seats, their
representation in the ministry is only 20%. Another interesting phenomenon arising from the
lopsided development that has taken place is that in the major urban areas of the state, the
proportion of STs is extremly low as given in Table 1 below. Thus even the few of the tribal elite
that do make it to the Vidhan Sabha or become part of the administration due to the provision for
reservations are hugely outnumbered in the economic and political centres which lessens their
commitment to the development of their brethren.
Table 1 : ST Population in Urban Areas of Chhattisgarh
District TOTAL ST % ST
Surguja 137181 23025 16.78%
Bastar 130021 23972 18.44%
Raipur 917618 38035 4.14%
Bilaspur 486694 31007 6.37%
Raigarh 169456 19253 11.36%
Rajnandgaon 231647 15637 6.75%
Durg 1072309 64035 5.97%
Source: Census of India 2001.
This brief review of the history of Chhattisgarh clearly shows how the tribal populace has
been systematically marginalised since the British times in pursuit of modern development and
how their protests have been suppressed. This is the prevailing anti-tribal ambience of
governance and development in which the non-implementation of PESA and the current
struggles for tribal self rule have to be understood.

11
4. Tribal Specific Socio-Economic Situation Analysis
Chhattisgarh is situated between 21°16′N and 21.27°N Latitude and 81°36′E and 81.60°E
Longitude covering an area of 135133 square kilometers of which as much as 81861 square
kilometers (60.58%) is notified as scheduled area under the Fifth Schedule of the constitution.
The tribals constitute 31.8 % of the total population of which 94.7% residing in rural and mostly
forested areas. The tribal literacy rate is 52.1% as compared to 64.7% for the whole population.
The population density is low at 134 per square kilometer. The tribal population is mainly
dependent on agriculture, animal husbandry and forest produce while there are some Primitive
Tribal Groups (PTG) like the Pahari Korwas who are still subsisting through hunting and
gathering. The Gonds constitute 55.3% of the total ST population. There are sixteen districts of
which seven are totally in the scheduled areas. The total number of tribal development blocks
covered under the Tribal Sub Plan are 85. The state is also the richest in India in terms of mineral
resources as shown in the Table 2 below -
Table 2: Minerals in Chhattisgarh 2005-06
Sl Mineral Reserves (Million Production Proportion of National Ranking
No. Tonnes) (Tonnes) Production (%)
1 Coal 35375 44723000 14.91 2
2 Iron Ore 2336 18490000 25.17 1
3 Bauxite 148 438095 6.39 6
4 Tin Ore 28894 22812 100.0 1
5 Limestone 75658 12106000 9.47 5
6 Dolomite 4386 673111 23.41 2
7 Quartzite 2707 17522 28.57 2
Source: Directorate of Geology and Mining, Chhattisgarh, 2006.
These rich mineral resources and especially the important ones like iron-ore, bauxite, coal
and limestone are mostly concentrated in the scheduled areas where the tribals reside as shown in
Table 3 below in which the fully scheduled area districts are shaded in green and the partially
scheduled area districts are shaded in blue.
Table 3: Districtwise Availability of Minerals in Chhattisgarh
District Minerals
Kanker iron ore, bauxite and granite
Korba bauxite and coal
Korea coal, fireclay
Dantewada tin ore, iron ore, corundum
Bastar limestone, dolomite, quartzite, iron ore and bauxite
Jashpur bauxite, gold and beryl
Sarguja bauxite and coal
Raipur limestone, diamond, alexandrite, garnet, dolomite, granite, gold
Durg limestone, iron ore, dolomite, quartzite
Bilaspur limestone, dolomite
Mahasamund gold and quartzite
Rajnandgaon limestone, iron ore, fluorite, quartz, granite
Kabirdham bauxite, Limestone

12
District Minerals
Janjgir limestone, dolomite
Raigarh limestone, quartzite and coal
Dhamtari granite and minor minerals
Source: Chhattisgarh Human Development Report 2005
Thus, right from the time of independence when industrial development was given a
boost in the region, the tribals have faced displacement because of the mining of these minerals
and the setting up of industrial plants to process and add value to them. Due to lack of education
and unfamiliarity with the modern industrial system the tribals mostly could not get jobs in these
new industries. A comprehensive study of tribal displacement carried out by a consortium of
social development and research agencies (Action Aid, Indian Social Institute and Laya 2008) in
the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand has come up with the a
disconcerting picture of injustice to tribals in the Scheduled Areas of these states which are all
rich in minerals and have seen a lot of development. The findings of the study with regard to
Chhattisgarh are as follows -
1. The estimated number of displaced and project affected persons in Chhattisgarh from
development projects upto 2007 were 8,58,093 of which 93.3 % were STs.
2. The main source of information regarding impending displacement was village gossip
(43%) while the least number of persons (3%) were informed by official notification
which is mandatory in such cases.
3. Only 2% of the affected people were aware of the criteria for awarding compensation
which was always in cash and inadequate in amount leading to formal or informal
complaints in 72% of the cases.
4. The costs of resettlement were mostly borne by the affected persons with costs being
borne by the state or project authorities only in 6% of the cases.
5. Consequently there have been a spate of protests against the land acquisition process of
which the most were armed protests (63%) and only a few were formal legal protests
(2%) as can well be imagined given that those displaced were overwhelmingly tribal.
The northern and southern parts are hilly and have plateaus while the central portion is the
richly alluvial Mahanadi basin which is a rice producing area and agriculturally very productive
as shown in Fig. 1 below. The normal annual rainfall is around 1300 mm. Consequently the state
is rich in water resources. Not only are there many streams and rivers with the Mahanadi being
the largest but also as mentioned earlier each village has many tanks that are used for both
domestic and irrigation purposes. The town of Ratanpur in Bilaspur district which used to be the
capital of both the Gond and Haihay rulers is unique in this respect. Ratanpur is situated at the
edge of the upper lower Mahanadi valley where it is bordered by the Churi Hills to the north. It
has as many as 256 tanks and these have been witness to more than a thousand years of history.
They were first constructed by the Gond kings who cleverly harvested the water that came
running down from the hills nearby to the valley. Such is the efficacy of this water harvesting
system that despite the year 2007-08 having been one that was heavily deficient in rainfall there
is no water shortage in this town which gets a lot of tourists due to its being a Hindu religious
centre of importance.

13
 Fig. 1 : Physical Map of Chhattisgarh
As mentioned earlier the tribals are numerically concentrated in the northern and southern
hilly parts while the plains are dominated by upper and other backward castes. The region wise
distribution of the various tribes are given in Table 4 below.
Table 4: Regional Distribution of Scheduled Tribes in Chhattisgarh
Area Districts Major Tribes Primitive Tribes
Kanwar, Oraon, Nagesia, Saunta, Saur,
Sawar, Baiga, Agaria, Kol, Dhanwar,
Biyar, Binjhwar, Manjhwar, Bharia,
Northern Surguja, Korea, Bhaina, Majhi, Khairwar, Kharia and
Region Jashpur, Raigarh Gond Korwa

14
Area Districts Major Tribes Primitive Tribes
Durg, Rajnandgaon,
Kabirdham, Korba, Gond, Oraon, Kol, Binjhwar, Dhanwar,
Bilaspur, Kanwar, Halba, Pardhi, Bahelia, Bhunjia,
Mahasamund, Janjgir- Agariya, Kondh, Bhaina, Majhi,
Champa, Raipur, Manjhwar, Sonr, Saur Gadaba, Sawar, Birhor, Baiga,
Central Region Dhamtari Saunta Korwa, Kamar
Halba, Gadaba, Pardhi, Kamar, Bhattra,
Dhurwa, Muria, Maria, Dandami Maria
Southern Kanker, Bastar, Gond, Raj Gond, Dorla, Hill Maria, Bison Horn
Region Dantewada Pardhan, Mudia Maria
Source: Chhattisgarh Human Development Report 2005
The state is rich in forest resources with a recorded forest area of 59,772 sq kms
constituting 44.21% of the total area. The area under Very Dense Forest (VDF) is 1,540 sq. kms
and that under Moderate Dense Forest (MDF) is 37,440 sq. kms. The district wise distribution of
forests is given in Table 5 below. The fully scheduled area districts are as before shaded in green
while the partially scheduled area districts are shaded in blue. Clearly the tribal dominated
districts are also the areas where there is maximum area under forests as is also illustrated in the
forest cover map in Fig . 2 below.
Table 5: Districtwise Distribution of Forests in Chhattisgarh
Reserved Forest (sq. Protected Forest Forests not under Forest Total (sq.
District kms) (sq. kms) Department (sq. kms) kms)
Kanker 1583.97 733.55 1040.85 3358.37
Bastar 3359.35 2083.86 1669.19 7112.39
Dantewada 5179.79 3125.74 1711.77 10017.3
Surguja 2473.14 6181.83 0 8654.97
Korea 2001.15 1528.14 0 3529.29
Jashpur 1147.71 588.08 1016.5 2752.29
Korba 0 2834.97 1352.4 4187.37
Raipur 1908.55 1888.46 615.77 4412.78
Dhamtari 2056.32 69.22 0 2125.54
Mahasamund 756.92 322.4 423.65 1502.97
Durg 635.07 113.23 114.91 863.21
Rajnandgaon 943.17 1709.15 270.69 2923.01
Kabirdham 706.57 921.85 223.83 1852.25
Raigarh 1597.62 581 1064.4 3243.02
Janjgir 151.46 59.3 39.3 250.07
Bilaspur 1281.39 1295.33 410.85 2987.56
Total 25782.18 24036.11 9954.11 59772.39
Source: Chhattisgarh Forest Department.
An unique feature of Chhattisgarh is the existence of large tracts of forests on revenue
land under private management and in the undivided Bastar consisting of the present Kanker,
Bastar and Dantewada districts they constitute as much as 22% of the total forest area. This has

15
occurred because of the practice of the kings and zamindars in this area having allowed tribals to
keep forest land and the teak trees on it under their control, a practice that was regularised after
independence through the Madhya Pradesh Protection of Scheduled Tribes (Interest in Trees)Act
1956. These tree rights came to be known as "Malik Makbuja" and were a welfare provision in
the interests of the tribals. However, in the late 1980s and early 1990s administrative and forest
department officers in collusion with timber traders began duping the tribals and felling the trees
by offering the latter a pittance of the actual commercial value. This scam which came to be
known as the "Malik Makbuja" scandal is an example of the way in which the simplicity of the
tribals has been exploited by bureaucrats and traders to subvert the welfare provisions that have
been made for their benefit (Sharma 1998).
The state has three
national parks and ten
wildlife sanctuaries.
Initially only the Indrawati
National Park in South
Bastar was within the
Project Tiger but now two
more wildlife sanctuaries
are to be included. The
protected area constitutes
10.6% of the total forest
area and is another cause of
deprivation of the tribals as
the restrictions on their
usage and movement within
these protected areas is
even more than in the
reserved and protected
forest areas.
The forest areas also
coincide with much of the
mineral resources
especially the industrially
very important bauxite and
iron. Thus this creates a
two way conflict with
environmental protection
and tribal livelihoods which
is the main reason for the
non-implementation of
PESA in Chhattisgarh as
will become clear later.
Fig. 2 : Forest Cover Map of Chhattisgarh

16
The district map of Chhattisgarh showing all the sixteen districts is shown in Fig. 3 below.

Fig. 3: District Map of Chhattisgarh

17
 The Chhattisgarh government has many programmes for the development of tribals
subsumed under the Tribal Subplan. However, these have not been able to bring about
substantial improvement in the condition of most of the tribals due to poor governance. Recently,
however, a pilot programme of tribal development has been launched with funding and technical
support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development which stresses on the
strengthening of community participation by leveraging the provisions of PESA to make the
Gram Sabha more powerful. This programme has targeted households in villages with tribal,
PTG and Scheduled Caste population of not less than 50% of the total population and where the
majority of the households live below the poverty line. The objective of the programme is to
develop and implement a replicable model that ensures household food security and improves
livelihood opportunities and overall quality of life of the tribal population based on the
sustainable and equitable use of natural resources. To achieve this, the programme -
i empowers tribal grassroots associations and users' groups, including women and
other marginal groups
ii promotes activities which generate sustainable increases in production and
productivity of land and water resources and
iii generates sources of income outside of agriculture, particularly for the landless.
The basic approach is to promote processes of awareness generation, legal literacy, social
analysis and mobilisation. The programme supports initiatives identified, planned and
implemented by beneficiaries and provides the required resources and support. The resources are
managed directly by the beneficiaries after appropriate training and capacity building. These are
supplied through NGOs with a proven experience in applying such approaches. The proposed
programme has three main components. Under the beneficiary empowerment and capacity
building component, the programme finances broad based awareness raising of tribal rights and
of gender and equity issues, legal and managerial strengthening, and technical training.
Similarly, under livelihood systems enhancement, the programme finances all production-related
activities as well as enabling measures, namely land and water management/ watershed
development, including community-based small infrastructures; production systems
improvement; rural micro-finance; and health and nutrition. Under the programme management
and implementation component, the programme finances salary and allowances for Programme
Implementation Unit staff at the district level, the relevant running costs for the Tribal
Development Society and a skeleton Programme Management Unit, a legal defence fund,
specialised and baseline studies, training for the staff and the development of training material,
exposure visits, study tours, and technical assistance, and the costs of capacity building of
facilitating NGOs and their contractual support services.
A gradual and phased approach is adopted to allow for the satisfactory empowerment of
Gram Sabhas and for building up grassroots institutions. Therefore, the programme has been
carried out in two phases - a pilot phase and a scaling up phase - with a reassessment and
evaluation at the end of the pilot phase and three years after commencement of the scaling up
phase. It is envisaged that the programme would be completed over a eight year period. The
funds planned for the activities to be undertaken by the communities is passed on either to
special purpose committees established under the programme, or to the Gram Sabha. At the
village level, the Gram Sabha is the basic unit for planning, co-ordinating and monitoring
programme activities. Since the programme’s activities is demand driven, a screening system has
been set up for screening of all requests for financing emanating from Gram Sabhas.

18
 Thus there is an awareness in the administration regarding the need for the empowerment
of the tribal Gram Sabha however the above programme is being implemented only in a few
areas where there are no controversial conflicts regarding the use of natural resources leading to
the violation of PESA by the government to further land acquisition for the establishment of
mines, industries and protected forest areas. Consequently overall the condition of the tribals is
considerably worse as compared to that of the non-tribals as is clearly brought out in the district
wise human development indicators given in Table 6 below where as before the fully scheduled
area districts are shaded in green and the partially scheduled area districts are shaded in blue.
Korba has the highest rank in human development despite being a fully scheduled area district
because it has the highest industrial development in the state which benefits mostly the non-tribal
upper caste and other backward class population of the district which constitutes as much as
48.52% as compared to 41.5% for STs and 9.98% for the SCs. Instead historically the tribals in
Korba have been displaced with little compensation and no rehabilitation to make way for the
many aluminium and cement related industries that have come up.
Table 6: Human Development Indicators of Districts in Chhattisgarh
Human
Development Index Workforce Partici- Total Fertilitiy Rate
2004 pation Rate 2001 2001 Literacy Rate 2001
District value rank value rank value rank value rank
Bastar 0.264 16 52.6 4 2.49 12 43.9 15
Dantewara 0.441 9 52.8 3 3.49 4 30.2 16
Kanker 0.397 10 54.1 1 2.6 9 72.9 3
Korea 0.307 15 47.7 10 2.53 11 63.7 10
Sarguja 0.418 11 49.8 8 3.6 2 54.8 14
Jashpur 0.455 7 53.5 2 3.32 5 63.8 9
Korba 0.625 1 42.6 14 2.69 8 61.7 12
Raigarh 0.43 10 47.5 11 1.86 16 70.2 5
Bilaspur 0.449 8 42.9 13 3.26 6 63.5 11
Mahasamund 0.577 3 47.9 9 3.11 7 67 7
Raipur 0.534 4 41.9 15 1.9 15 68.5 6
Durg 0.578 2 41.4 16 3.6 2 71.6 4
Rajnandgaon 0.374 14 50.6 5 2.07 13 77.2 1
Janjgir 0.5 5 43.7 12 2.55 10 66.9 8
Dhamtari 0.496 6 50.1 4 1.97 12 74.9 2
Kabirdham 0.326 15 49.9 7 3.67 1 55.2 13
Source: Chhattisgarh Human Development Report 2005

5. PESA and the Wider Legal Framework

A brief survey of the history of Indian law will be necessary to understand the importance
of PESA for tribal areas and the reasons for its non-implementation. The independent Indian
government in fact continued the policy introduced by the British of promising liberal natural
justice on paper and suppressing it in practice to pursue a policy of extraction of resources to fuel
modern industrial development.

19
5.1 Indian Legal History
The British when introducing the first Government of India Act in 1858 after the transfer
of the administration of the Indian territories of the East India Company to the Crown had
guaranteed to the people of India inter alia that due regard would be paid to the ancient rights,
usages and customs of India while framing new laws and that these laws would be administered
equally and impartially for the benefit of the people (Paranjape 1998). Almost immediately,
however, these principles were breached. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was enacted in 1860 and
the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in 1861. These laws, with some minor amendments
only, are still in force today and have been codified in such a manner as to provide the
administration with a handy means of suppressing organised public dissent especially by tribals
who are illiterate and not conversant with the modern legal system.
A more harmful law from the point of view of the tribals was the Indian Forest Act 1864.
Applying the principle known in British law as Res Nullius (meaning that if a particular property
has no documented owner then it is free for acquisition) the British refused to recognise the
customary community rights of the adivasis over the forests in which they resided and handed
them over to the Forest Department created for this purpose. This law too in its last colonial
version of 1927, which effectively converts the tribals into trespassers in their own backyard,
continues to be in force at present. Yet another law that disinherited the tribals from their main
resource of land was the Land Acquisition Act 1894 which using the principle of eminent
domain empowered the government to dispossess the private owner of a piece of land for some
public purpose in exchange for a paltry compensation. Once again this law also has been retained
and widely used to displace people, particularly adivasis, in independent India in pursuit of
modern industrial development (Fernandes and Paranjpye 1997). After independence, The
Wildlife Protection Act 1972, was passed which provides for the setting up of sanctuaries and
national parks leading to further displacement of tribals. Yet another act that is inimical to the
traditional livelihoods of the tribals is The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation)
Act, 1957.
The biggest contradiction of all these acts in the post independence era was with Gandhi's
conception of "Gram Swaraj" or the promotion of grassroots democracy through the
establishment of autonomous village republics. Panchayati Raj was included in the Directive
Principles of State Policy which were non-justiciable. This meant that unlike fundamental rights
these could not be enforced through the courts. Basic rights like that to free education, health and
nutrition services and the means to a dignified livelihood too were included in this section. Thus
provisions that could have created an aware, educated, healthy and articulate population and
provided them with an institutional structure for implementing their development according to
their own genius were ignored totally by the governments both at the Centre and the States after
independence thus paving the way for the persistence of a form of internal colonialism and
feudalism. Matters were compounded by the fact that fundamental rights too were not easily
assured given the tremendous expenses involved in approaching the High Courts and the
Supreme Court for redressal of violations often by the State itself. While the erstwhile princes,
landlords and the capitalists often went to court to obstruct the path of justice for the poor, the
latter and especially the tribals could hardly afford to do so.
This in effect meant that the checks and balances that form a basic part of a liberal
democratic set up were not operational. Instead the executive consisting of the Council of
Ministers and the Bureaucracy were considerably more powerful than civil society from which
20
they gained their legitimacy. The party system ensured that the Council of Ministers and its
leader the Prime Minister would always be much more powerful than their fellow legislators. In
the initial years after independence, the overwhelming majority of the Congress party and the
charisma of its leader Jawaharlal Nehru also meant that the opposition was not very vocal or
effective in monitoring the actions of the government and Parliament was reduced to being as
ineffectual as a debating society. Moreover, preventive detention laws were enacted to silence
the protests of people's organisations and their leaders outside Parliament and thousands of such
people were jailed. Finally the press too was not as combative and investigative as it is today and
given the high level of illiteracy it did not have much of a reach. Thus the government and the
bureaucracy rode roughshod over democratic niceties to push through a process of modernisation
at the cost of the ordinary people by using colonial repressive laws and by flouting the
progressive aspects of the constitution. The bureaucracy, which continued in its colonial mindset,
was a power unto itself as it not only framed all the laws but also interpreted and administered
them to the detriment of an illiterate and unaware populace.
The tribals had special provisions included for their benefit in the Indian Constitution
under section 244 and elaborated in the Fifth and Sixth Schedules. Those in the states of Assam,
Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram were to be covered by the provisions of the Sixth Schedule
while those in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan were to be covered by the provisions
of the Fifth Schedule. The basic philosophy behind these provisions was that the tribals had a
unique communitarian culture based on a subsistence non-accumulative lifestyle that was totally
at odds with the consumerist culture spawned by modern industrial development. Thus, it was
necessary to conserve this culture by secluding it from the aggressive thrust of modern
development. The British administrator, anthropologist and social activist Verrier Elwin was the
foremost proponent of this view and it was he who influenced Nehru in this matter and was the
brain behind his "Panchsheel" for tribal areas which spoke of their development keeping in mind
their uniqueness. However, given the tremendous imbalance of powers between the centralised
administration and the grassroots community level organisations of the tribals, these noble ideas
remained a pipe dream in reality.
The provisions under the Sixth Schedule purport to provide for a self contained code for
the governance of the tribes living in those areas through the institution of autonomous district
councils. Despite the fact that autonomous district councils gave some powers to the tribes in
respect of determining many aspects of their life, these were limited by the greater powers of the
states of which they were a part. In the case of Assam and Tripura, non-tribals who were in no
mood to cede any substantial concessions to the tribals dominated the state legislatures and
curbed the powers of the district councils. In the case of the states of Meghalaya and Mizoram,
the tribal leaders at the state level usurped all the powers emasculating the district councils.
Problems have been created by not giving sanction to the laws and rules passed by the councils
and also by restricting the funds available to them to carry out developmental activities.
Centralised development and immiserisation of the tribals has been the rule and the district
councils have fallen well short of the aspirations of the people in the northeastern states (Roy-
Burman 1997). Moreover, the long drawn armed insurgency in the area by the many tribal
groups demanding independence or autonomy has been countered by military suppression by the
Indian state leading to a situation in which the traditional grassroots tribal communities have
been totally superseded. Finally the spread of the consumerist market economy has further
undermined traditional tribal culture in the region.
21
5.2 Fifth Schedule
The situation in the Fifth Schedule areas has been even worse. This schedule sets out
stringent and wide ranging provisions for the governance of tribal areas in the mainland states.
Section 4 of the Schedule reads thus -
Section 4. Tribes Advisory Council - (1) There shall be established in each State having
Scheduled Areas therein and, if the President so directs, also in any State having Scheduled
Tribes but not Scheduled Areas therein, a Tribes Advisory Council consisting of not more than
twenty members of whom, as nearly as may be, three-fourths shall be the representatives of the
Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly of the State :
Provided that if the number of representatives of the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative
Assembly of the State is less than the number of seats in the Tribes Advisory Council to be filled
by such representatives, the remaining seats shall be filled by other members of those tribes.
(2) It shall be the duty of the Tribes Advisory Council to advise on such matters pertaining to the
welfare and advancement of the Scheduled Tribes in the State as may be referred to them by the
Governor
(3) The Governor may make rules prescribing or regulating, as the case may be,--
(a)the number of members of the Council, the mode of their appointment and the appointment of
the Chairman of the Council and of the officers and servants thereof,
(b) the conduct of its meetings and its procedure in general; and
(c) all other incidental matters.
Thus the Governor along with the Tribes Advisory Council can if they so wish direct the
governance of the Scheduled Areas in a special manner and this is further reinforced by Section
5 of the Fifth Schedule which reads thus -
Section 5 (1). Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, The Governor may by public
notification direct that any particular Act of Parliament of of the Legislature of the State shall not
apply to a Scheduled Areas or any part thereof in the State or shall apply to a Scheduled Area or
any part thereof in the State subject to such exceptions and modifications as he may specify in
the notification and any direction given under this sub-paragraph may be given so as to have
retrospective effect.
(2) The Governor may make regulations for the peace and good government of any area in a
State which is for the time being a Scheduled Area.
In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such regulations
may –
a) Prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of the Scheduled Tribes in such
area;
b) Regulate the allotment of land to members of the Scheduled Tribes in such area;
c) Regulate the carrying on of business as money-lender by persons who lend money to members
of the Scheduled Tribes in such area;

22
(3) In making any such regulation as is referred to in sub-section (2), the Governor may repeal or
amend any Act of Parliament or of the Legislature of the State or any existing law which for the
time being applicable to the area in question.
Thus theoretically it is possible for the Governor of a state, on the advice of the Tribes
Advisory Council consisting of the tribal MLAs of the state, to prevent the application of or
repeal the Indian Forest Act and the Land Acquisition Act. The most important aspect of these
provisions is that the Governor may implement them so as to ensure "peace and good
government" in tribal areas as the framers of the Constitution felt that this could be possible only
if the tribals were allowed to develop according to their own laws and customs. However, this
has never happened because it is not a binding provision and only a suggestion like the Directive
Principles of State Policy, which finally has to depend on the executive for its implementation.
There has been only one meeting held each year of the Tribal Advisory Council in
Chhattisgarh from 2006 onwards despite the state having been formed in 2000. These meetings
have been concerned more with the cadastal survey of the Abujhmarh forested area which is
under the control of the Maoist rebels and the rehabilitation of the displaced villagers in the south
Bastar region than with the autonomous decentralised development of tribal communities as
envisaged in the Constitution.
Consequently, there has been neither peace nor good government in tribal areas. The
history of the past sixty years after independence is replete with innumerable struggles of the
central Indian tribals against the injustice meted out to them by the Indian state through the
ruthless implementation of the Indian Forest Act and the Land Acquisition Act and the cynical
non-implementation of the Fifth Schedule. Obviously the lack of grassroots governance
institutions was becoming more and more of a problem as the level of political awareness and
literacy was increasing and the centralised trickle down type of development was coming apart at
the seams. There was a need to provide a third tier of democratic institutions to take some of the
pressure of accountability off the shoulders of the state and central governments. Consequently
the pressure building up within the mainstream parties and from various mass organisations and
NGOs finally led to the passing of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in 1992 making
Panchayati Raj mandatory.

5.3 Enactment of PESA

A concerted campaign conducted by the National Front for Tribal Self-Rule constituted
by various mass organisations fighting for tribals rights led to the Scheduled Tribal Areas were
excluded from the purview of the Panchayat Raj amendments. Article 243M (4) (2) of Part IX of
the Constitution envisages that "Parliament may by law extend the Provisions of this part to the
Scheduled Areas..... subject to such exceptions and modifications as may be specified in such a
law". Thus this was the first time that a central law had not been automatically extended to the
Scheduled Areas. It was also stated that such a law enacted by Parliament would not amount to
an amendment of the Constitution and could thus be passed by a simple majority. Provision for
this special law was made keeping in mind the failure of the Governors to implement the
enabling provisions of the Fifth Schedule.
There was, however, no enthusiasm shown by the central government to pass this special
act and extend the provisions of the 73rd amendment to the Scheduled Areas. However, the
National Front for Tribal Self Rule continued its campaign. At about this time Dr B.D. Sharma

23
one of the main leaders of this campaign was engaged in a struggle along with the tribal people
of Mawlibhata and surrounding ten villages in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh against the
acquisition of their land for the setting up of a steel plant there. As a consequence of this struggle
in 1993, a Mawlibhata declaration for tribal self rule called "Hamara Gaon Mein Hamara Raj" or
Our Rule in Our Village was made public. This leant more weight to the campaign and finally
the Government of India constituted a Committee of Members of Parliament and Experts in 1994
to suggest the framework of the special law to be enacted for this purpose and the changes
necessary in other acts to accord with the spirit of the new act. This committee, which has since
come to be known as the Bhuria Committee after its chairman ex-M.P. Shri Dilip Singh Bhuria
submitted its Report on January 17th 1995. Some of the important recommendations of the
Committee are as follows (Sharma 1995)
1. The community habitation like a hamlet rather than an administrative unit like a
village should be the basic unit of the system of self-rule in tribal areas and this
should be designated as the Gram Sabha.
2. The Gram Sabha would function on the basis of consensus.
3. The Gram Sabha would concern itself with all matters of day to day life including
command over natural resources, resolutions of disputes, investigation and
adjudication of all matters including debts and management of institutions such as
schools, cooperatives, health centres etc. It would also be responsible for
execution of all developmental programmes including the selection of
beneficiaries. The administrative personnel at the village level would function
under its control.
4. The higher level institutions from the Gram Panchayat to the District Councils
would all have appellate jurisdiction and would be able to undertake development
works at their level and be constituted by people directly elected from the Gram
Sabhas.
5. The demographic structure of some tribal areas has undergone significant change
because of heavy influx of population of non-tribals and so a majority of members
in all elected bodies as also their chairman and deputy chairman should be tribals.
6. The tribal areas are mostly situated on the boundaries of administrative units be
they blocks, districts or states and so a reorganisation of tribal areas should be
undertaken so as to constitute tribal administrative units with homogeneous
social, economic, geographical and ethnic parameters. This reorganisation should
be completed within two years.
7. Many tribal areas have not been included in any of the Scheduled Areas. The
process of extension of Scheduled Areas that was started in 1976 came to a halt in
1978. This process should be restarted and all the remaining tribal areas should be
included in Scheduled Areas within one year.
8. The Constitution should be amended to make the provisions of the Fifth Schedule
mandatory and justiciable so as to rectify the indifferent functioning of the Tribal
Advisory Councils and the total neglect of their responsibility with regard to
Scheduled Areas by the Governors of the States. A Central Tribal Advisory
Council should also be constituted.

24
 These were radical recommendations and so once again the government did not show any
intention of enacting the special act for extension of Panchayati Raj on these lines. Meanwhile
Panchayat elections were announced in February 1995 in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh
Government enacted a Panchayati Raj Act providing that only in blocks that had 100 percent
tribal population would the top posts for the various levels of Panchayat bodies be reserved for
tribals and in Scheduled Areas where the tribal population was in a minority there would be no
reservation whatsoever. Thus the tribals who had already lost on the demographic front due to
non-tribal influx and on the economic front due to land alienation were now also to lose on the
political front due to lack of a special law for the extension of Panchayati Raj to Scheduled
Areas. This was challenged by Arka Vasanth Rao and others in the Andhra Pradesh High Court
which held in its judjment of 23rd March 1995 that the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act 1994
was unconstitutional and so could not apply to the Scheduled Areas (Sharma 2001).
This brought to the fore the serious problems that could arise in the absence of a special
central act extending the provisions of Panchayati Raj to the Scheduled Areas. The National
Front for Tribal Self-Rule stepped up its campaign to get this new law enacted. Meetings and
mass rallies were held all over the country and intense lobbying was resorted to with the Central
Government. Finally in desperation some of its members sat on an indefinite hunger strike at
Rajghat in 1996. This combined with some more lobbying finally resulted in the preparation of a
watered down version of the Bhuria Committee Recommendations, which was passed through
parliament without debate and became the now famous PESA. PESA as it stands is a far cry
from what is ideal for the tribals in the Fifth Schedule areas but something is better than nothing
and it has already proved to be a headache for the central and state governments and a boon to
tribal mass organisations. The paramount nature of the Gram Sabha in tribal areas has been
established even though it has not been vested with the wide-ranging powers that it should have.
Most importantly for the first time in the history of the country a law that has been drafted by the
people and not by a bureaucrat had been enacted. Thus it provided an opportunity to small tribal
mass organisations to try and assert the power of the people at the grassroots level.
The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 was
promulgated primarily to safeguard the interests of the tribals under Panchayati Raj in the Fifth
Schedule Areas in accordance with the spirit of the provisions in the Constitution of India.
Section 4 of this Act clearly states that "Notwithstanding anything contained under Part IX of the
Constitution, the Legislature of a State shall not make any law under that Part which is
inconsistent with ... (various features listed)". For the purpose of land acquisition for
development projects which is the main bone of contention between the State and the tribals and
cause for the non-implementation of PESA, the feature that is of importance is -
Section 4 (i) - the Gram Sabha or the Panchayats at the appropriate level shall be consulted
before making the acquisition of land in Scheduled Areas for development projects and before
resettling or rehabilitating persons affected by such projects in the Scheduled Areas; the actual
planning and implementation of the projects in the Scheduled Areas shall be co-ordinated at the
State level.
Accordingly the Chhattisgarh Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam 1993 as
amended in 1997 has the following provision as one of the powers of the Gram Sabha -

25
Section 129 c (iii) - The natural resources within the area of the village comprised by land, water
and forests will be managed in comprehensive accordance with the traditions of the village, the
provisions of the Constitution and any reasonable laws that may be in existence.
Moreover, for the purposes of land acquisition under the provisions of the Land
Acquisition Act 1894 an order no. F12-46/97/7-9 has been passed that makes the following
provisions -
Section 3 (6) - The Collector and the representative of the government department or the
company that wants to acquire land in the village will be present during the Gram Sabha meeting
called for the purpose of consultation and consider all the objections raised to the project and the
land acquisition by the oustees. (The earlier subsections of this section list the detailed
procedures for the oustees and the Gram Sabha in general to be fully informed about the
proposed project and land acquisition.)
Section 4 - The Gram Sabha if it is in agreement with the proposal for land acquisition will pass
a resolution to that effect and if it is not then after extensive consultation with the Collector and
the company representative will record the reasons for its disagreement in the resolution to that
effect and submit it to the Collector.
Thus it is clear that in Fifth Schedule Areas in Chhattisgarh natural resources including
land have to be managed as prescribed in the Constitution and any other law enacted for this
purpose and land acquisition too has to be done in consultation with the Gram Sabha and with its
agreement. The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution says in this regard as mentioned earlier -
Section 5 (2) - The Governor may make regulations for the peace and good government of any
area in a state which is for the time being a Scheduled Area. In particular, and without prejudice
to the generality of the foregoing power, such regulations may -
(a) prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of the Scheduled Tribes
in such area."
Accordingly there is a provision in the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code 1959
prohibiting such land transfer as follows -
Section 165 (6) - Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) the right of
Bhumiswami belonging to a tribe which has been declared to be an aboriginal tribe by the State
Government by a notification in that behalf, to the whole or part of the area to which this code
applies shall-
(i) in such areas as are predominantly inhabited by aboriginal tribes and from such date as
the State Government may, by notification specify, not be transferred nor it shall be
transferable either by way of sale or otherwise or as a consequence of transaction of loan
to a person not belonging to such tribe in the area specified in the notification.
This provision was repealed by the Chattisgarh Legislature in a blatant violation of the
Constitutional Provisions of the Fifth Schedule in 2006 and this was challenged in the High
Court resulting in the staying of the legislation but the final hearing is still pending. However,
since there is a stay the status quo is being maintained in this regard by the administration. It is
clear, therefore that the PESA and the various rules and laws made in accordance with it in the
State of Chhattisgarh are quite powerful in protecting the rights of the tribals to a just
development if they are properly implemented.

26
5.4 The Samatha Judgment
The question as to whether the provisions of Section 5 (2) (a) of the Constitution cited
above were binding on State Governments when it came to not leasing out land to private
companies for mining or other development purposes came up for interpretation in the Supreme
Court in Samatha vs State of A.P. and Others, Civil Appeal No. 4601, 4602 and 4603 of 1997
(1997(8) Supreme Court Cases 191). The Supreme Court in a landmark judgment in this case,
upheld the contention of the petitioners that Section 5 (2) was binding on the State Government
and it could not transfer government land or private land owned by tribals to non-tribals in Fifth
Schedule Areas under any circumstances whatsoever because this provision was part of the basic
structure of the Constitution and also the intent of its founding fathers in the Constituent
Assembly. The salient features of this important judgment which has come to be known as the
"Samatha Judgment" after the NGO Samatha which instituted the case are -
1. Agriculture is the mainstay of the livelihood of most tribal people and so land is an
integral part of their life support system. However, they have been continually alienated
from this valuable resource from the time of the British due to the settling of non-tribal
people in their lands, practice of forest cutting, laying of railway lines and the usurious
practices of moneylenders (Paras 10 - 14).
2. Concerned by the unrest triggered among the tribals due to such unjust treatment the
Colonial Government enacted the Scheduled Districts Act XIV in 1874 to seclude tribal
areas from the inroads of non-tribals and specially govern them for the benefit of tribals.
One important provision was to prevent the transfer of land ownership rights from tribals
to non-tribals. These provisions of seclusion and special governance of tribal areas
including that of non-alienation of tribal land were later continually strengthened and
their rationale was given final form in the report of the Simon Commission thus - "There
were two dangers to which subjection to normal laws would have specially exposed these
peoples, and both arose out of the fact that they were primitive people, simple,
unsophisticated and frequently improvident. There was a risk of their agricultural land
passing to the more civilised section of the population and the occupation of the tribals
was for the most part agricultural and secondly they were likely to get into the 'wiles of
moneylenders'. The primary aim of Government policy then was to protect them from
these two dangers and preserve their tribal customs and this was achieved by prescribing
special procedures applicable to these backward areas." (Paras 15 - 16)
3. The Government of India Act 1935 enacted in accordance with the report of the Simon
Commission had the following important provision which was later adopted in a
modified form in the Constitution -
Section 92 (2) - The Governor may make regulations for the peace and good
government of any area in a Province which is for the time being an excluded
area, or a partially excluded area, and any regulations so made may repeal or
amend any Act of the Federal Legislature, or of the Provincial Legislature or any
existing Indian Law, which is for the time being applicable to the area in
question. (Para 17)
4. This history of legal provisions for exclusion and special governance of tribal areas
especially with regard to non-alienation of tribal land from British times and the reality of
the non-implementation of these laws and policies on the ground leading to devastation

27
 of tribal livelihoods is described in detail and summed up as follows - " The above bird's
eye survey discloses the enormity of the yawning gap between the making of the Acts
and their proper enforcement. The magnitude of the problem is of national importance
which needs to be tackled and solved by parliamentary law and effective enforcement."
(Paras 20 - 30)
5. The Constituent assembly debates on the various drafts too emphasised the need to
seclude and specially govern tribal areas and protect their lands from alienation by non-
tribals and a proposal to have some provision for allotment of land to non-tribals with the
permission of the Tribes Advisory Council was rejected unanimously and Section 6 of
the draft Constitution of 1948 reads thus - "(i) aliention of allotment of land to non-tribals
in Scheduled Areas, it shall not be lawful for a member of Scheduled Tribes to transfer
any land in person who is not a member of the Scheduled Tribes; (ii) no land in
scheduled area vested in the State within such area shall be alloted to person who is not a
member of the Scheduled Tribes except in accordance with the rules made in that behalf
by the Governor in consultation with the Tribal Advisory Council for the State." Finally
this was amended and the Fifth Schedule as it stands today was passed leading the court
to conclude as follows - "It would, therefore, be clear from the narration of the Debates in
the Constituent Assembly that various drafts were placed before the Constituent
Assembly. Suggestions and ultimate approval of the Fifth Schedule, as extracted
hereinbefore, would mainfest the animation of the founding fathers that land in the
scheduled area covered by the Fifth Schedule requires to be preserved by prohibiting
transfers between tribals and non-tribals and providing for allotment of land to the
members of the Scheduled tribes in such area and regulating the carying on of the
business by money-lenders in such area." (Paras 32 -35)
6. The Supreme Court has further stated - " It is seen and bears recapitulation that the
purpose of the Fifth and Sixth Schedules to the Constitution is to prevent exploitation of
truthful, inarticulate and innocent tribals and to empower them socially, educationally,
economically and politically to bring them into the mainstream of national life. The
founding fathers of the Constitution were conscious of and cognizant to the problem of
the exploitation of the Tribals. They were anxious to preserve the tribal culture and their
holdings. At the same time, they intended to provide and create opportunities and
facilities, by affirmative action, in the light of the Directive Principles in Part IV, in
particular, Articles 38, 39. 46 and cognate provisions to prevent exploitation of the tribals
by ensuring positively that the land is a valuable endowment and a source of economic
empowerment, social status and dignity of persons. The Constitution intends that the land
always should remain with the tribals. Even the government land should increasingly get
allotted to them individually and collectively through registered Cooperative Societies or
agricultura and farming Cooperative Societies composed solely of the tribals and would
be managed by them alone with the facilities and opportunities provided to them by the
Union of India through their Annual Budgetary allocation spent through the appropriate
State Government as its instrumentalities or local body in a planned development so as to
make them fit for self-governance. The words "peace and good government" used in the
Fifth Schedule require widest possible interpretation recognised as applied by this Court
in T.M. Kanniyan Vs. Income-tax Officer, Pondicherry & Anr. [(1968) 2 SCR 103 at l07-
08] and Queen Vs. Russel [(1882) 7 AC 829]." (Para 93)

28
 7. Specifically regarding the PESA the Supreme Court has stated - "By the Constitution
[73rd Amendment] Act, 1992 amended Part IX of the Constitution, the principle of self-
government based on democratic principles at Gram Panchayat and level upwards was
introduced through Articles 343 to 343ZG. As an integral scheme thereof, the Andhra
Pradesh (Provision of the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1966 came to
be made. Section 4 (d) of that Act provides that "(N)otwithstanding anything contained
under Part IX of the Constitution, every Gram Sabha shall be competent to safeguard and
preserve...community resources". Clause (j) of Section 4 provides that planning and
management of minor water bodies in the Scheduled Areas shall be encrusted to the
Panchayats at the appropriate level. Under clause (m) (iii) the power to prevent alienation
of land in the Scheduled Areas and to take appropriate action to restore any unlawful
alienation of land of a Scheduled Tribe and under clause (iv) the power to manage village
markets, by whatever name called, are entrusted to the Gram Panchayats. It would
indicate that the tribal autonomy of management of their resources including the
prevention of the alienation of the land in the Scheduled Areas and taking of appropriate
action in that behalf for restoration of the same to the tribals, is entrusted to the Gram
Panchayats." (Para 94)
Thus, the Samatha Judgment clearly affirms that the provisions of the Fifth Schedule read
along with the provisions of PESA (the Chhattisgarh Panchayat Raj Act provision cited above is
similar to the Andhra Pradesh one) give the tribal Gram Sabha in Fifth Schedule Areas the
paramount power of deciding on the use and ownership of the natural resources in its area of
jurisdiction including that of land. Under the circumstances if the permission of the Gram Sabha
has not been obtained in a transparent and democratic manner then the acquisition and transfer of
such land to non-tribals is a violation of the Constitutional Provisions.

5.5 PESA and Other Laws and Regulations

Other laws and regulations that affect the tribals should also be amended or applied
keeping the provisions of PESA in mind. Since the Indian Forest Act and the Wildlife Act too
have a land acquisition process through which people can be involuntarily displaced, these too
come under the purview of PESA and their implementation has to be sanctioned by the Gram
Sabha. As regards mining the Samatha judgment makes abundantly clear that mining in
Scheduled Areas can only be done either by a government company or by a cooperative of tribals
and that also with the agreement of the Gram Sabha.
The Chhattisgarh Abkari (Sanshodhan) Adhiniyam, 1997 [Chhattisgarh Excise Act
amendment], The Chhattisgarh Khanij Gaud Niyamavali, 1996 [Chhattisgarh Mining
Regulation], Chhattisgarh Laghu Vanopaj directives, [Chhattisgarh Minor Forest Produce
directives] are some of the other Acts and Rules that have been amended to conform to the
provisions of PESA making the Gram Sabha all powerful. Especially of importance is the power
given to the Gram Sabhas to regulate the production and sale of liquor, the mining of minor
minerals and the management of water resources.
Apart from this the Environment Protection Act 1986 provides that Environment Impact
Assessments (which will also include a social impact assessment based on a structured
interaction with the affected population) have to be made for all development projects with
outlay higher than Rs 100 crores involving large displacements and environmental impacts
which have then to be presented in public hearings in the affected area before clearance of the

29
project and especially those that require the diversion of forest land for non-forest use. The rules
for the conduct of these EIAs have been made more stringent and people friendly subsequent to
the passage of PESA. Thus the provisions of PESA regarding the informed consent of the Gram
Sabha has applies in this case too. Finally the two new legislations of National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act 2006 (NREGA) and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional
Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act 2006 (STOTFDA) too stress the importance of the
Gram Sabha and its control over both the work to be done and the natural resources to be
augmented in the first case and in the management of forests in the second. Clearly the spirit of
PESA which tries to empower the tribals through the Gram Sabha has permeated the formulation
of many other laws and rules subsequently. The Gram Sabha is defined as a hamlet smaller than
a village and includes settlements in reserve forests which do not have revenue village status.

6. Violation of PESA in Chhattisgarh

The Society for Participatory Research in Asia had carried out a survey of Ambagarh
Chowki Block in Rajnandgaon in 2004 (PRIA 2004). This survey revealed that there was very
little awareness among both the administration and the people regarding the powerful provisions
of PESA. A preliminary interaction survey of the various NGOs and Civil Society Organisations
in the state of Chhattisgarh as part of the present study too revealed that even now, more than a
decade after the amendment of the Chhattisgarh Panchayat Raj Act in accordance with PESA
there are only a handful of NGOs and CSOs that are aware of its powerful provisions. Obviously
the awareness of these provisions among the tribal populace is almost non-existent.
Consequently the primary reason for the present wanton violation of PESA in Chhattisgarh and
its non-implementation is the widespread lack of awareness among the people and the
government functionaries regarding its powerful provisions. Thus, given the limited scope of the
present research it was decided to study first hand some of the more glaring cases of violation of
PESA in situations where land had to be acquired for the purposes of some development project
or for establishment of protected wild life areas in the state.
These case studies were selected from an analysis of the news reports regarding the
movements going on against the violation of PESA and are not exhaustive. They only give an
indication of the extent of the problem. Focus group discussions were conducted in villages
affected by these projects independently by the study team to gather in depth information
regarding the situation prevailing on the ground. The various types of projects studied, the dates
of the site visits and the NGOs and CSOs working with the affected people are given in Table 7
below. The information in the narrative that follows is based primarily on these case studies and
wherever in addition secondary sources have been referred to the citations are given.
Table 7 : Major Development Project Induced Violations of PESA in Chhattisgarh
Type and Area of Project Dates of Study NGOs and CSOs involved in
Visit People's Struggle against Violation
Displacement due to Steel Plants and 15th to 17th Tribal Welfare Society and
mines in Dantewara and Bastar March 2009 Adivasi Mahasangh
Districts
Displacement due to conflict between 18th to 19th Vanvasi Chetna Ashram
Salwa Judum and Maoists in Bastar and March 2009
Dantewara Districts

30
 Type and Area of Project Dates of Study NGOs and CSOs involved in
Visit People's Struggle against Violation
Displacement due to Steel Plants and 20th to 22nd Parivartan Samaj Sevi Sanstha,
Iron-ore Mines in Kanker District March 2009 Adivasi Samata Manch.
Displacement due to Wildlife 23rd to 25th Parivartan Samaj Sevi Sanstha,
Sanctuaries and other forest related March 2009 Nadi Ghati Morcha, Jan Jagriti
issues in Bastar, Kanker and Raipur Samiti.
Districts
Displacement due to Wildlife 26th to 27th Adivasi Maha Panchayat,
Sanctuaries and other forest related March 2009 Navrachna Samaj Sevi Sanstha
issues in Bilaspur District
Displacement due to River Privatisation 28th to 29th Nadi Ghati Morcha, Forum for
in Durg district and other water related March 2009 Fact Finding, Documentation and
issues Advocacy
Displacement due to Steel and Power 20th to 22nd April Jan Chetna
Plants in Raigarh District 2009
Displacement due to Steel and Power 23rd to 25th April Ekta Parishad, Tribal Welfare
Plants and Coal mining in Korea, 2009 Society, Jan Sangharsh Zila
Jashpur and Sarguja Committee.
On the basis of the research conducted it is clear that the major violations of PESA in
Chhattisgarh are due to the initiation of mining, industrial and river projects. This is followed by
that due to Wildlife Sanctuaries. A related problem is that of rampaging elephants that destroy
agricultural crops. Then there are the ill effects of the promotion of Jatropha as a bio-fuel on
common lands and also the problems associated with collection and marketing of Non-timber
forest produce and the related problem of exploitation by moneylenders. Finally there is the
displacement due to the Salwa Judum movement that is being supported by the Government in
its actions to suppress the Maoist rebellion in the state. These different kinds of displacement
and the specific ways in which PESA has been violated in them have been described below. The
case studies have been grouped together industry sector wise so as to be able to draw relevant
conclusions from them.

6.1 Steel Plants

The world's best quality iron ore is situated in fairly large quantities in Chhattisgarh as
mentioned earlier. So there is a rush by Indian steel conglomerates to set up steel plants big and
small to capitalise on this ore at a time when iron ore deposits the world over are being rapidly
depleted. Since steel plants require a lot of land and water and also cause serious pollution, their
establishment involves tremendous social and environmental impacts for the local population.
Four case studies are presented below.
6.1.1 Nagarnar - The first case of violation of PESA in connection with the setting up of
a steel plant in Chhattisgarh is that of the proposed National Mineral Development Corporation
(NMDC) Steel Plant in Nagarnar Gram Panchayat in Bastar district. The process started with the
holding of a Gram Sabha on June 11 th 2001 for getting consent for land acquisition. However

31
according to the villagers the detailed Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Report which is
mandatory under the Environment Protection Act was not presented and the officials only
explained that a steel plant using new technology was to be set up and land was required for this
purpose. The public hearing on the EIA was in fact conducted only later on November 20 th 2001
in Jagdalpur which is 17 kms away from Nagarnar and the people were not informed. There was
immediate opposition from the people present and so the meeting ended inconclusively.
However, the Collector issued a press statement that the villagers had agreed to give their lands
for the project.
The villagers found on June 16th 2001 that the district administration later manipulated
the records of the meeting of the Gram Sabha. The minutes book of the Gram Sabha which is
normally kept in the Panchayat office was taken away by the Panchayat Officer and then
replaced some days later. Pages were torn out from the books and a new set of minutes had been
written stating that the Gram Sabha had acquiesced to the setting up of the project. The villagers
then got in touch with the National Campaign for Tribal Self Rule and filed a complaint with the
National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on August 2 nd 2001. The local
administration took the notices sent to it by the Commission lightly and sent routine replies.
Tthe process of land acquisition was instead expedited and the final award under Section
9 of the Land Acquisition Act was passed on September 29 th 2001 in a hurry in a complete
travesty of the process of consultation. The people had never been informed under Section 4 of
the act or later under Section 6 either thus depriving them of their right to file objections. While
most of the villagers were adamant not to accept this fraudulent procedure the administration
lured some villagers and told them that they were being provided finance for the purchase of
agricultural implements and material. They were told that finance would be provided to them for
the purchase of bullock carts. They were taken to the Collector’s office and were asked to sign
on some documents that they could not read and cheques were given to them. Later, they were
told that the cheques were the compensation for their land and not to provide finance.
The National Commission of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes on October 1st 2001
asked for a detailed report on the comprehensive complaint filed by the people regarding the
fraudulent Gram Sabha records. After this in the afternoon of October 23rd 2001 the
administration began targeting the leaders of the movement against the project and they were
arrested. Immediately the women of the village went and sat in a dharna in front of the police
station demanding the release of their leaders. At around 10 p.m. the police suddenly cane
charged the women who were sitting peacefully outside the station and arrested some of them
while dispersing the rest. The arrested women were severly beaten up in custody. A heavy police
force of 150 personnel along with high level administrative and police officers arrived at
Nagarnar at midnight. They were confronted by a large number of villagers demanding the
release of the arrested persons. The villagers refused to let the police take the arrested persons
away to Jagdalpur and encircled the police station. Finally at 10.30 am on 24 th October the police
resorted to extensive cane charging, tear gassing and also firing to disperse the crowd of people
and severely injured many of them. The villagers, women in the forefront continued to encircle
the police station despite this and finally the detained persons were released after the Collector
intervened.
The National Commission for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes meanwhile had
a meeting on 23rd November 2001 with the Secretary of Panchayats, Government of Chhattisgarh

32
and the Chaiman and Managing Director of the NMDC and finally in its recommendations the
Commission conveyed to the Collector on 12th December 2001 that
(i) the land acquisition process was null and void because it had not been done properly
(ii) criminal offences had been committed whose by the administraion
(iii) guidelines regarding rehabilitation had not been followed and
(iv) the entire process should be redone
Despite this the NMDC finalised the contract for the building of the boundary wall on
th
26 December 2001 prompting the villagers to sit on dharna at the site from January 1st 2002.
The NMDC with the help of the administration tried to forcibly begin construction of the wall on
January 31st 2002 but the people resisted this. A massive Gram Sabha meeting was held on
March 2nd 2002 in which 3,504 persons attended and a resolution was passed demanding that the
project should not be built on agricultural land but on government scrubland which was available
in plenty in the area. The administration held a discussion with the people after this on March 9 th
2002 and agreed to their demands. However, the very next day a heavy police force was sent
down to the village and massive repression was carried out on the people and many were arrested
and were beaten up and forced to accept the cheques for compensation. After this from March
12th 2002 the construction of the boundary wall was begun.
The irony is that despite such blatant violation of the provisions of PESA to acquire the
land the steel plant has not yet been built. Apart from this there were violations of the
Environment Protection Act and the Wildlife Act. Also a rule of the Ministry of Environment
and Forests - S.O. 470 (E) dated June 21 st, 1999, Environment (Siting for Industrial Projects)
Draft Rules was also violated. Section (2) of this rule prohibits the setting up of steel plant in a
25 km belt around the periphery of National Parks, Sanctuaries, and core zones of Biosphere
Reserves. The Kanger Ghati National Park is situated in the vicinity of Nagarnar within a 25 km
radius and so the setting up of the steel plant violates this rule.
6.1.2 Lohandiguda - Tata Steel has proposed the setting up of a 5.2 million tonnes per
annum steel plant in Lohandiguda of Bastar district. The area to be acquired is spread over the
ten villages of Beliapal, Badeparoda, Dabpal, Badangi, Churagaon, Chindgaon, Kumhali,
Takraguda, Belar in Lohandiguda block and Sirisguda in Tokapal block on both sides of the
Jagdalpur to Chitrakot road and flanking the Indrawati River. According to the notification
served under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act a total of 2,169 hectares of land are to be
acquired of which 1,861 hectares belong to tribal farmers and the rest is government land. In
accordance with the provisions of PESA a Gram Sabha meeting was held on 20th July 2006 to
get the agreement of the people to the land acquisition process. The people expressed stiff
opposition to the project but despite that fraudulent minutes were written that the Gram Sabha
had acquisced in the land acquisition and the rehabilitation package being offered by the Tata
Steel company. The villagers have filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Chhattisgarh High
Court challenging this fraudulent land acquisition process and one of them has stated on oath in
an affidavit that that he wasn't present at this meeting despite his name being mentioned as being
the Chairman of this meeting. Similarly others have stated on oath that they too were absent from
the meeting even though the records mention that they were present. The meeting was held under
heavy police presence and later the people of the area have been constantly threatened and many
have been put behind bars under preventive sections of the CrPC to break down their resistance.

33
 However, the people have organised themselves under the banner of "Prastavit Tata Steel
Punarvas Samiti" and with the help of the All India Adivasi Mahasangh and its secretary Manish
Kunjam have fought this violation of PESA both at the ground level as well as in policy and
legal forums at the state and national levels. The petition filed in the High Court in Bilaspur has
also mentioned the violation of PESA but this is pending for final disposal after admission and so
like the other case in which the amendment of the Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code has been
challenged here too there seems to be no immediate chance of a decision. The demands being
made by the people are as follows -
1. The project should be implemented by a joint sector company in which the
government has 49% share so as to ensure that some of the profits from the
company are used for the development of the tribals.
2. All the oustees are landholding farmers and should be given alternative developed
agricultural land as well as compensation for the land they are giving up at
prevailing market rates which range from Rs 5 lakhs to Rs 10 lakhs per hectare
(The Tata Steel, has offered compensation of Rs 2 lakh per hectare for un-
irrigated land with a single crop, and Rs 2.5 lakh for irrigated land with double
crop only). They should also be provided with house plots in a developed colony
with all civic amenities like water supply and sanitation, roads, electricity, schools
and hospitals in accordance with the Chhattisgarh Rehabilitation Policy 2005.
3. One member from each of the oustee families should be given employment as a
skilled worker in the project and if need be they should be provided free training
to be able to qualify for such employment.
4. There should also be reservation for all posts in the new project for Scheduled
Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Castes commensurate with their
proportion in the population in Bastar district.
5. The compensation to be provided should be in the form of shares in the new
project and its ancillaries and all work to be outsourced by the project should be
given to cooperatives of the oustees and other Scheduled Tribe people of the area.
6. The land records of the area have not been revised since the last settlement in
1991 and so they do not reflect the true situation with respect to landholding in
the area. These should be rectified before determining the award of compensation.
Former legislator and chairman of the Adivasi Mahasangh, Manish Kunjam, who is
leading the movement against the project, said the administration was delaying the process of
organising the mandatory public hearings to be held under the provisions of the Environment
Protection Act. The government is wary of holding the hearing in the face of the protest against
the Tata Steel plant.
A new protest has now snowballed in the area against the state government's move to
supply water from the Indrawati river for constructing the plant and meeting the demand of water
for the project. The Indrawati is considered the lifeline of Bastar as it is a holy river for the
tribals. The river originates from Rampur-Ghumal village in Orissa's Kalahandi district. But a
major part of the river, 500 kms of the total length of 800 kms, flows in Chhattisgarh. About 43
per cent of the tribals in the interior parts of Bastar depend on the Indrawati for their livelihood
as the river is a major source of irrigation, fisheries and drinking water. The continuing flow of
the river in Chhattisgarh is itself at stake as its course is returning to Orissa and merging with
Jora nullah instead of entering the Bastar region. The Indrawati river will totally merge with Jora

34
nullah in 10 years if immediate steps are not taken to reduce the width of the nullah according to
a report prepared for the Central Water Commission. The governments of Orissa and
Chhattisgarh had earlier agreed to construct a structure to check diversion of the course. But no
headway has been made. Water level recedes fast after the monsoon and, at many places,
Indrawati gets dry as the natural flow diverts into Jora nullah near the state border and returns to
Orissa. The industrial use of the Indrawati water would deepen the crisis because if Tata Steel
draws water, it would set a new precedent and the NMDC would also demand water from
Indrawati for its proposed sponge iron unit in Nagarnar. Apart from this there is also the issue of
the pollution that the plant will cause to the river which has to be ameliorated and since the
Environmental Impact Assessment report has not been put to public scrutiny yet, there is no
information regarding this.
Thus, there are a number of legal provisions that are being violated apart from that of
PESA and like in the case of Nagarnar there have been many repressive actions by the police to
threaten the people into submission including the filing of false cases and imprisonment of the
local leaders of the movement. Yet another meeting of the Gram Sabha was organised on July
20th, 2006. Two days before this the district administration held a meeting with the villagers.
According to the people of Badangi and Belar villages, the collector told them that all the
demands mentioned earlier had been accepted. The villagers asked the collector for written proof
but instead, the administration imposed Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code on the whole
region, restricting the assembly of people, and filed cases against 55 Gram Sabha leaders.
Seventeen people were arrested. Even then, the Gram Sabhas didn’t act as per the government’s
wishes. No Sabha could be held in two of the Panchayats; in three of the Panchayats where
Sabhas were held, no decision could be taken. The villagers today say they were pressurised to
give up their land and thumb impressions were forcibly taken from the tribals and consent
obtained for land acquisition. The district administration managed to get decisions in their favour
in two Gram Sabhas only. The tribals called a Gram Sabha on their own on February 24th, 2007,
and challenged the land acquisition process but in Takraguda and Belar, the police attacked the
people and arrested Manish Kunjam, the national president of the Adivasi Mahasabha. In this
way through the application of force and the weaning away of people through bribes the
administration has continued the land acquisition blatantly violating the provisions of PESA.
6.1.3 Dhurli - Dhurli is a little village nearly 14 km from Bacheli town in Dantewara
district. This is the town in which the NMDC has its washeries for the iron ore that it has been
mining from the Bailadila iron ore mines set up in 1975 to supply ore to Japan. Essar Steel
limited has signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) with the government of
Chhattisgarh for a 3.2 million metric ton steel plant with an investment of Rs. 6000 crores. 600
hectares of land in Bhansi and Dhurli villages are to be acquired for this purpose. When the
Adivasi Mahasangh made a routine Right To Information application to check the contents of the
MoU, its request was rejected. The grounds for the rejection was that the MoU between the
Government of Chhattisgarh and Essar Steel (and also Tata Steel) could not be shown to any
third party as it would be prejudicial to the privacy of the second party.
The price offered to the people was Rs. 2,00,000 per hectare and Rs. 10,000 per mahua
tree. Each full grown mahua tree gives the owner more than Rs. 20000 in a single year. Rs.
2,00,000 per hectare is well below the market prices of agricultural land in Dhurli and Bhansi
villages which are situated on the National Highway from Jagdalpur to Vishakhapatnam.
Moreover Essar Steel had earlier commissioned the world's second longest iron ore slurry

35
pipeline to carry iron ore fines from Bailadila to Vishakhapatnam and had not properly
compensated the people whose lands they had acquired for the purpose. Under the circumstances
the people did not have any confidence in Essar Steel's announcement that it would set up an ITI
and train the people of Dhurli so that they could be employed in the plant. So naturally the
people began protesting against this land acquisition. The people from the village who are
leading the movement against land acquisition were arrested on 26th August 2006 by police
under the charges of IPC sections 107, 151 and 116, which are all preventive in nature, so as to
intimidate the people prior to the Gram Sabha to be held on 30 th August 2006.
Heavy police force was deployed in the village after the arrest of the village leaders and
th
on 30 August, the primary school which was to be the location of the Gram Sabha meeting was
heavily barricaded and guarded. People were called in singly and asked to sign on the minutes
register in which a resolution approving the land acquisition process had already been written.
About 39 non-literate people were so forced to sign but the rest of the villagers refused and went
away protesting. After this the Gram Sabha meeting was suspended by the District Collector.
This meeting had been attended by a massive contingent of district officials and also various
members of the legislative assembly, the leader of the opposition and the Minister in Charge of
the district as well as the executives of Essar Steel. Essar Steel issued press statements after this
that the sanction of the Gram Sabha had been obtained and work would progress apace.
However, due to the inadequate number of signatures another Gram Sabha had to be held
th
on 9 September 2006. Once again it was concluded under the shadow of the gun. Section 144 of
CrPC was imposed preventing assembly of people in the whole region and again the attendees
were the district collector, the local MLA and his whole entourage, the MLA of the neighbouring
constituency and his whole entourage, various officials, and very very few villagers. As before
top Essar Steel executives too attended the Gram Sabha. The whole area was sealed and the
roads were blocked by the jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force. Thus, there was a
clear violation of PESA by the state which was countered by the united opposition of the people
and the process of land acquisition has still not begun.
6.1.4 Taraimal - The steel plant of Nalwa Sponge Iron Limited (NSIL) has been in
operation in Taraimal village, Raigarh disrtict, since 2001, when its first Direct Reduced Iron
(DRI) kiln was started. This process of iron making is less capital intensive than the traditional
blast furnace based steel plants which have to have a size of atleast 3 million tonnes per annum.
Moreover, the quality of coal needed for the DRI process which is also called the sponge iron
process because of the perforated finished product is not as stringent as that for blast furnaces.
Thus, in recent years there has been a mushrooming of sponge iron plants in Chhattisgarh based
close to the coal mines in Raigarh and Bilaspur. NSIL is located about 12-13 kms north of
Raigarh town. the Kelo river, which is the main source of water of Raigarh, flows at a distance of
about 500-700 metres from the plant. Since its inception the plant has grown so that today NSIL
is operating with 6 DRI kilns, a captive power plant, a coal washery and a steel melting shop. As
usual the land acquisition process followed was faulty and moreover due to heavy pollution from
the chimmey stacks and the slag and ash heaps farming in the vicinity had become a problem.
There had also been subsequent land grabbing and encroachment onto government nistaar
(common) lands and forest lands further inconveniencing the people. Drawal of excessive
ground water and also water from the Kelo river had created a severe water scarcity in the area.
The flying dust from the piles of ash dumped all around the plant has settled on trees, plants and
crops affecting agriculture and has also caused serious health problems in the community.

36
 In January 2006, notices were issued in local newspapers announcing a public hearing for
the further diversification of the units of NSIL at Gharghoda the tehsil town. The hearing, which
is mandatory under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 1994, was scheduled for
3rd March 2006. But the local communities who had been suffering the problems in Taraimal
began opposing this move. They based their opposition on the fact that the plant had blatantly
violated environmental conditions for operation. The Chattisgarh Environment Conservation
Board (CGECB) had given its consent for establishment of the plant to NSIL on 22nd October
2001 with 23 conditions. These included:
a. Limiting emission of particulate matter from stacks to 150 mg per cubic meter.
b. Provision for measurement of water consumed and waste water discharged in
different categories.
c. Installation of separate electric metering arrangements for running of pollution
control devices. This should be done in such a manner that the electricity supply
would be tripped if pollution control devices stopped functioning.
d. Arrangement for continuous source emission and ambient air monitoring.
Submission of a monthly report to the CGECB of this.
e. Submission of environment statement at the end of every year by the company.
f. Taking up extensive steps for tree plantation in the area.

Several notices were issued by the CGECB to NSIL, but the non-compliance continued.
Some of these notices had clearly indicated that no further expansion of NSIL could take place
and also that a comprehensive EIA should be carried out for the plant. The public hearing for the
proposed expansion brought these concerns to the fore once again. The hearing itself was
scheduled 20 kilometres away from Taraimal at Gharghoda, making it quite difficult for people
from the affected areas to attend. However due to the seriousness of the issue some villagers still
made the long journey arriving at the hearing site in a trickle. Consequently the important task of
raising the various issues and demanding the cancellation of the public hearing had to be taken
up by a few representatives and activists from the region. Along with the villagers these activists
and organisations made a written submission regarding the problems. This mentioned the
environmental and social problems of the operation of NSIL and the inadequacies of the EIA for
the diversification prepared by the consultants of the project. The people present first sought the
cancellation of the meeting on the grounds that it was held too far away from the site of the
proposed expansion. The Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), J. Mohabe, flatly refused the
demand for cancellation of the hearing. The SDM was on the panel as a representative of the
District Collector, who joined the hearing almost three hours after the official time specified in
the public notice. When their first demand was refused, those present pointed out that the
operations of NSIL had already been arraigned for legal, environmental and social violations as
noted by the government itself. Given these, it would hardly be proper to allow further
expansion. A public hearing, they argued, could only be held once the impacts were assessed
properly and given the non-compliance with many of the conditions for NSIL's operations, they
asked that the plant itself be shut down until the required conditions were complied with. The
SDM, however, did not grant their repeated demands that the hearing be postponed. When the
collector arrived the demands were raised again. It took some effort to convince him, but
eventually, the Collector finally ordered the cancellation of the hearing. It was announced that
the next date of the public hearing would be intimated later after carrying out a detailed
estimation of the adverse impacts of the NSIL plant.

37
 However, instead of carrying out a detailed assessment of the violations of NSIL within
an hour of the cancellation of the hearing the next date of the hearing was set for 20 days later on
24th March 2006. This was confirmed a week later when notices were published in local
newspapers. The whole process of public hearing was being subverted and instead of taking the
public opinion into consideration for determining whether clearance should be given a formality
was sought to be done to provide clearance to the expansion. Consequently the company and the
administration gradually bribed and threatened people into giving up their opposition to the
extension of the plant and all the clearances were obtained.
6.1.5 Pollution from Sponge Iron Plants - The Sponge iron plants are situated all over
Chhattisgarh and not only in tribal areas like Taraimal. They are causing immense harm through
heavy extraction of ground water and the pollution caused through their gaseous emissions and
solid waste disposal needs to be studied as a special case of violation of not only PESA but the
Panchayati Raj Act in general. Even in places like Urla and Sarova just next to the capital city of
Raipur the land nearby is covered with black residue from sponge iron plants. This waste is toxic
as it contains huge amounts of heavy metals. The deposit of this toxic waste combined with the
reduction in ground water levels due to heavy withdrawal by these factories means that the
concentration of toxicity in the water that the people drink increases even further. Everything in
the vicinity of these plants - houses, clothes and agricultural fields, are coated black with the
suspended matter emanating from the chimney stacks. There is also a strong possibility of
Carcinogenic effects of this widespread pollution (Jan Chetna and NCAS 2006).
India is the world's largest producer of sponge iron. With steel prices spiralling out of
control, sponge iron is a thriving business. The investment in setting up a sponge iron plant, with
its rudimentary technology and little machinery, can be recovered in just over a year. Part of the
increase in the price of steel manufacturing by the blast furnace route comes because of the
increase in the price of one crucial raw material, coking coal, that India largely imports. Sponge
iron is an alternative route to produce steel by using low grade coal, which is much cheaper. So,
as the price of steel rises, the sponge iron industry makes profits without the same costs as the
big steel makers. As a result, plants of all sizes, many less than 100 tonnes per annum have come
up all over the state, literally without any check, in the backyard of people's homes. Since it is
very costly to dispose of the solid waste and also clean the gaseous emissions before releasing
them into the air this is not being done. The people invariably protest but the Gram Sabhas which
pass the resolutions against these plants are ignored and the regulatory authorities which have to
give clearances to these projects and also monitor their operations with regard to pollution and
water use are non-functional.
Three and a half years ago in March 2006, responding to growing protests from people
affected by sponge iron pollution, the Central Pollution Control Board issued draft standards for
this industry. Under these standards, the industry would not be allowed, 'under any
circumstances', to dump its waste on agricultural lands, no new sponge iron plant would be
commissioned without installation of pollution-control equipment capable of meeting stringent
air-quality standards and plants would need to be sited at distances from villages and from each
other. These draft statndards have not been notified as yet. Thus when considering the issue of
industrialisation and its environmental and social impact it is not just the violation of PESA or
Panchayati Raj Act that has to be taken into consideration but also the violation or non-existence
of environmental standards under the Environment Protection Act and the violation of
rehabilitation policies and the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act.

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6.2 Power
The foremost method in India, which has abundant coal reserves, for generation of
electricity is through coal based thermal power stations. Jashpur, Raigarh and Bilaspur districts
have the main coal bearing seams in the state and so the Chhattisgarh Government has initiated
a policy to exploit this abundance of coal by establishing a power hub in the region based on coal
mine pit head thermal power stations. Two case studies are presented here regarding the social
and environmental violations involved in the setting up of such a power hub.
6.2.1 Tamnar - The 1,000 MW thermal power plant of Jindal Steel and Power Limited
(JSPL) in Tamnar village in Raigarh district has been established by flouting various laws and
regulations. Environmental clearance for the first phase of the project was granted on September
24th 1997. According to the EIA notification, clearance was granted for a period of five years.
This expired in September 2002. Despite this a fresh process for seeking clearance was not
initiated. Yet construction activity at the Tamnar site continued and the first phase was
completed in 2005. The power plant also required clearance from the Ministry of Environment
and Forests for the diversion of 177.542 hectares of forestland for the construction of a reservoir
and an 18-metre-high dam to provide water to the plant. Construction activity here included
diversion of the Kurkut river in order to build the dam. The need for forest clearance is mandated
by the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 and it was clearly specified in the 1997 environmental
clearance letter which specified that construction activity could not begin unless clearance was
granted. Forest clearance was only granted on August 8th 2005. However, in complete violation
of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and the conditions specified in the environment clearance
letter, JPL began construction of the Tamnar power plant and also started diverting the Kurkut
river at Rabo village. Truckloads of mud were brought into the village and dumped in the river in
October 2004 and trees were cut down.
This led to angry protests by the villagers whose natural surroundings, lives and
livelihoods would be seriously impacted by the building of the dam and the river's diversion.
Land too would be submerged. Unfortunately, by the time the villagers were able to stop the
work, JSPL contractors had already filled half the river. It was only after the intervention of the
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister vide letter No. 11529 dated 2.11.2004 that the work stopped
temporarily. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the Chhattisgarh
Environment Conservation Board and divisional forest officers were all informed of the situation
at various points of time. However despite this the forest clearance was granted in 2005 three
years after the expiry of the environmental clearance in 2002. This is itself a violation, since the
forest clearance could only be given conditional upon the environmental clearance being valid.
Any extension of the environmental clearance would have required a fresh clearance process to
be undertaken including a public hearing and preparation of another Environment Impact
Assessment (EIA) report. But this was not done and instead the MoEF extended the
environmental clearance in 2004 on the basis of the fact that construction had been proceeded
with disregarding the reality that this was done illegally. Thus the regulatory bodies in complete
violation of the Environment Protection Act and also PESA and the Forest Conservation Act
sanctioned the project with scant regard for the opinion of the affected people.
Meanwhile, JSPL applied for clearance of the second phase, for which a public hearing
was organised on October 7th 2005. There were various pressures applied at the village level. On
October 6th 2005, a meeting was held at Rabo village with the intention of convincing the
villagers to accept construction of the dam and prevent them from attending the public hearing
39
on October 7th. The meeting included the local MLA, in whose constituency Rabo and Tamnar
villages fall, the District Collector, Superintendent of Police, Sub-divisional Officer, Gharghoda,
as well as representatives from JSPL and members of the police force. It was in such an
atmosphere that the villagers were asked to accept construction of the dam and negotiate
compensation. Not surprisingly, the public hearing turned out to be a sham. On October 7 th 2005
hundreds of women and men gathered at the public hearing organised at the block office in
Gharghoda tehsil of Raigarh district. Just as the public hearing began, the people demanded that
it be cancelled because, firstly, the EIA report and its executive summary had not been made
available at the five designated places prior to the hearing. And, secondly, the public hearing
panel had no knowledge of the procedures prescribed for a public hearing under the EIA
Notification, 1994. On learning this the four panel members decided to step down. Logically this
would have meant the cancellation of the hearing, as the panel that had to send in its
recommendations to the central government was incomplete. But the District Collector ignored
this and went ahead with the hearing. The villagers and local activists and supporters from
outside Raigarh, including social activist Medha Patkar, filed their written and verbal objections
to what had taken place. Representatives from the affected villages of Tamnar, Salihabhata,
Kunjemura, Pata and Libra brought up the main livelihood issues concerning villagers in the
region. They stressed that the plant's expansion would impact agricultural as well as grazing
land. Local activists also submitted a technical critique as part of their objections, highlighting
the problems of air pollution, fly-ash proliferation and groundwater depletion. It was pointed out
that due to the second phase expansion, 52,368,000 million litres of water per day would be
extracted. This quantity was equivalent to the drinking water requirements of 238,036
households at water supply of 40 litres per capita per day. For the entire 1,000 MW plant this
would double to 476,072 families and a population of 2.75 million. A severe drinking water
crisis would result in the region.
Villagers’ protests and objections of Gram Sabhas have been ignored by the Chhattisgarh
Government. Fifty two panchayats of the area unanimously passed a resolution that the villagers
would not give up their land for the construction of the power plant. Despite this registered
dissent, lands of the tribals were sold under fallacious terms, and almost all the common property
land in the area, around 800 hectares, is now under the direct control of JSPL. In its plan for
expansion in Saraipali village, JSPL has completely bypassed critical environmental norms.
JSPL had started construction at the proposed site even before it received clearance from the
Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for the forest land as mentioned earlier. After
opposition heightened the company carried out an EIA but that too was superficial and false.
Ecologically sensitive habitats like national parks, biosphere reserves, wildlife sanctuaries,
archaeological monuments, health resorts and defence installations within a 25 km radius of the
site were not mentioned in the EIA report, which facilitated the grant of a clearance order for the
company from MoEF.
Consequently despite such vocal protests once again as in the case of NSIL the JSPL
management and the administration worked hand in glove to bribe and coerce the people into
submission and broke the unity of the movement against the project.
6.2.2 Pathadi - The LANCO Amarkantak Power Company is setting up a coal based
thermal power plant in Pathadi and Sarabgundia villages in Korba district to produce 1920 MW
of electricity. The commercial arm of the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC),
approved an $8 million equity investment in Lanco in June 2007 and in May 2008 approved a

40
further $100 million investment for a long-term IFC-Lanco partnership. The IFC adopted in 2006
a new set of social and environmental safeguards for its funded projects especially those like the
Pathadi one in which displacement of tribals is involved. These, however, have not been properly
applied. The IFC gave the project a 'Category A' social and environmental rating, which is the
highest for social and environmental project impacts, due to the potential significant adverse
social and environmental impacts. In the affected villages where people depend on small-scale
agriculture as the main basis of their livelihoods, local families have lost a third of their land to
the project. The first phase of land acquisition in 2005 was deeply flawed. It occurred without
sufficient consultation or provision of appropriate information to the affected peoples. Gram
Sabha meetings were not conducted properly and no objection resolutions were passed in the
presence of only 10 percent of the people. The 'Category A' social and environmental rating and
the fact that the project impacts tribals, imposes strict responsibilities on both Lanco and the IFC
to see that justice is done to those who are affected by the project. However, Lanco failed to
provide adequate information to local communities and made promises about jobs and
compensation that have not been delivered. The company published inaccurate social and
environmental assessments two years after the start of construction. The flawed social
assessment stated that the tribals in the local villages have no spiritual or cultural ties to the land.
This is false as the tribals still maintain ceremonial relations with the land acquired for the
project. There will be serious negative consequences from the operation of the power plant for
local communities due to polluted rivers and lands and receding water levels. The IFC
monitoring team visited the area and met the people but nothing came of this consultation.
During the last assembly election in Chhattisgarh, neither of the political parties addressed the
violations of peoples' rights by the company. The desperation of people, particularly of youths, is
high. Villagers have started to bribe the local administration so that they can gain employment in
the factory. Consequently the affected people have lost out twice. First they lost their livelihoods
through the acquisition of land and now they are paying to get jobs in the plant.
The IFC's sustainability policy requires that its staff ensure that there is broad community
support before a project is financed but in this case the IFC has condoned the violation by Lanco
of both the Indian law in the form of PESA and its own safeguards.
6.2.3 Chandan Nagar - The Indian Farmers Fertilizer Co-operative Ltd (IFFCO) had
proposed to set up a coal-based 1000 MW power plant in Chandan Nagar in Sarguja district in
March 2005. The villagers organised against the project under the banner of the Gram Sabha
Parishad and after a struggle of more than two years finally managed to force IFFCO to
withdraw in May 2008. Villagers said the company had conducted "secret surveys' before
approaching them with the proposal. They reacted by attacking the IFFCO officials. The
company even got one of the villagers arrested in December 2007. But he was released within
hours after over 1,000 people marched to the police station. This was followed by a rally in
February 2008. The provisions of PESA helped the villagers to remain resolute because it
mandates the Gram Sabha to approve of plans, programmes and projects for social and economic
development before they are taken up for implementation. Villagers said that IFFCO planned to
build five dams on the Atem river to divert water for the power plant, besides threatening to take
away village land and also cause a lot of pollution. The villagers also said that the company had
prepared a false EIA report to get environmental clearances. This is one of the rare cases where
PESA has been successfully implemented and the administration has not used undue force to
threaten the Gram Sabha into submission as it has done elsewhere.

41
6.3 Rivers and Dams
The requirement of water for industrial and urban development has traditionally been a
major reason for the impoundment of rivers through dams. There is a long history of dams built
in Chhattisgarh beginning with the Maramsilli dam in the beginning of the twentieth century
followed by the Dudhawa dam, the Gangrel dam on the Mahanadi just after independence to
provide water for the Bhilai steel plant and the Hasdev Bango dam and in all of these people had
been displaced at the time of their construction without adequate compensation and
rehabilitation. So much so that some of the oustees of these dams sat in dharna on the road in the
hot summer of the year 2008 in Dhamtari district after all these years demanding just
rehabilitation that had been promised to them at the time of construction of these dams. The over
three thousand protestors were demanding land for land and sat in protest for six days but
eventually they did not get their demand. This phenomenon of displacement of people due to the
construction of large dams on rivers has intensified since the formation of the new state and now
whole rivers are being privatised. A few case studies are presented below
6.3.1 Sheonath River - The Sheonath river originates in Durg district and flows through
Raipur, Bilaspur and Janjgir districts before merging with the Mahanadi. The Sheonath was the
first river of the state to be privatised. The Madhya Pradesh Aydhyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam Ltd
(MPAKVN), Raipur, on June 26th 1996 received an application from M/s HEG Ltd of Durg
Industrial Centre, Borai stating that they were being supplied 12 lakh litres of water daily, but
they would need 24 lakh litres extra water daily. MPAKVN agreed to supply the extra water but
said that since there was less water in the Sheonath river between February and June, it could not
supply the same amount of water during that period. However, it proposed that HEG Ltd should
join with it to construct a dam, since it didn't have the necessary resources for building the dam
itself. After a series of meetings, a tender notice was issued for the construction of the dam on a
Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis. This tender made a provision for inclusion of
'tilting gates'. However, before the tender was released, on October 14, 1997, Kailash
Engineering Corporation of Rajnandgaon wrote to MPAKVN that they had developed automatic
tilting gates and they therefore held the patent. Clearly, the provision of tilting gates in the tender
meant that the water project could only be executed by Kailash Engineering or by some other
company with Kailash's consent. Soon after, MPAKVN handed over its entire infrastructure in
Borai, and assets worth Rs. 5 crore to Kailash Engineering, for a token sum of Re. 1, for
establishing the water supply project on BOOT basis. Radius Water Limited, the company set up
by Kailash Engineering to execute this project, was granted the contract on October 5 th 1998. It
was to be effective till October 4th 2020. The company didn't conform to any of the standards
relating to minimum capital and experience mentioned in the tender. MPAKVN didn't take the
permission of, or even inform, the irrigation, revenue, or any other department of the government
before entering into the contract with Radius Water Limited. Construction on BOOT basis meant
that the company would be responsible for both construction and maintenance through its own
resources. But MPAKVN had handed over all its resources to Kailash Engineering and on top of
that had signed another contract which stated that Radius would receive Rs. 650 crores in the
form of a loan and Rs. 250 crores through equity shares, amounting to a total of Rs. 900 crores
which would be expended on this project. 3.6 million litres per day (mld) of water was being
supplied by MPAKVN from the industrial area of Borai to various factories. The day the water
supply project was handed over to Radius Water Ltd, the latter guaranteed MPAKVN that it
would supply 4 mld water immediately. Further, another contract for a period of 22 years was

42
made between Radius Water Ltd and MPAKVN that even if the latter didn't take 4 mld of water,
it had to compulsorily pay for it. The truth was that MPAKVN only needed 2.4 mld of water.
While MPAKVN paid Re. 1 per cubic metre for the Murethi project of the irrigation department
which is on the river Sheonath in Raipur district, it contracted to pay a whopping Rs. 15.02 per
cubic metre to Radius Water Ltd. The responsibility of building the dam on the Sheonath and
supplying water lay with Radius Water Ltd. By the time the whole process was completed, the
state of Chhattisgarh had come into being and MPAKVN became the Chhattisgarh State
Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC). Radius Water Ltd. then began fencing in 22.7
kilometres of the Sheonath river upstream of the dam after the year 2000 and had taken
possession of thousands of square meters of land apart from the 70 hectares adjoining the river
bank at Borai. In the first year after taking over the resources of CSIDC for a paltry Re. 1, Radius
collected Rs. 15.12 lakh every month from the latter for the 4 mld of water it supplied under the
contract. Thus without investing a single rupee as capital, Radius received payments worth Rs
1,81,44,000 from the state government in the first year. Moreover, there were only two industries
in Borai and they required only 2.4 mld of water but the CSIDC was forced to pay for 4 mld of
water in accordance with the contract. Also, CSIDC received Rs 12 per 1,000 litres from the
industries to which it was supplying water, but it had contracted to pay Radius Water Ltd Rs
15.02 per 1,000 litres, leading to a loss of Rs 3.02 per 1,000 litres.
The Sheonath river is the main source of water for most of the surrounding villages
which was freely available to everyone earlier. But after Radius Water Ltd took possession of the
river, the villages situated on its banks upstream of Borai were prohibited from using its waters
for irrigation, fishing, bathing, or domestic use. Land on the banks of the river which was used
for cultivation, has been submerged following the storage of water in the dam. Thousands of
farmers in the surrounding villages were told that the river had been effectively sold to a private
company. The people said that the whole process took place without the conduct of a single
Gram Sabha meeting in any of the villages. Company officials moved from one village to
another and threatened the villagers. They also confiscated the pumps from villagers involved in
irrigation. The upstream villages of Mohlai, Khapri, Rasmara, Siloda, and Mahmara have been
badly affected. But the situation is worse for villages situated below the Borai dam. Farmers of
Chirbali, Nagpura, Malud, Jherni, Piparchhedi, and Belodi find that all the water is now stored in
the dam and the lower portion of the Sheonath has dried up. The people mobilised themselves
under the banner of the Nadi Ghati Morcha and conducted processions, roadblocks and protests
to draw attention to their plight.
These public protests prompted the first Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh to announce on
nd
April 2 2003, that the contract with Radius Water Ltd. would be abrogated, that the issue would
be investigated and whoever was found guilty would be prosecuted. Rather than any action being
taken against Radius Water Ltd and the latter started filing cases against journalists who
published reports against it and also cases against the protestors. In the year 2003 the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) of the legislative assembly of the State began investigating matters
relating to the privatisation of the Sheonath river. The PAC submitted its report to the legislative
assembly in March 2007. It came down heavily on MPAKVN for its removal of HEG Ltd. and
awarding of the contract on less beneficial terms and conditions to a private institution which
was inexperienced in the field of water supply. The PAC said further that "Contracting on BOOT
basis for water supply and dam construction has made the project irrelevant and purposeless. As
a result of which the government is facing losses from the first day of this project. Providing the
assets of water supply project to a private institution on a lease at a meagre token money of one
43
rupee is a conspiracy to put the government in a loss making situation" (PAC 2007). The PAC
further said that many changes made in the documents which the inspection committee unearthed
"can be categorised as criminal offences, previous instances of which can only be found in the
criminal world. That any government officer in cahoots with an industrialist can plan such a
conspiracy, is beyond reach of the imagination of committee." The PAC also made several
recommendations:
 The contract and lease-deed executed between Radius Water Ltd and MPAKVN (or CSIDC)
should be declared null and void within a week of presenting the report. CSIDC should take back
ownership of all assets and the water supply project.
 The then managing directors of MPAKVN and its Chief Engineer should be prosecuted for
conspiring to cause losses to the government and for handing over its assets to a private
institution by preparing false documents.
 Criminal charges should be initiated against the Chief Executive Officer of Radius Water Ltd
for cooperating in this criminal conspiracy and for making profits by fraudulently harming the
government.
 A probe should be initiated against those officers of MPAKVN and the state water resources
department whose involvement in this whole conspiracy is apparent, and strict disciplinary
action should be taken against them within one month.
The PAC also recommended that the responsibility of implementing the recommended
course of action should be given to an officer of Secretary level and that the government should
engage top class lawyers to safeguard its interests. But the recommendations weren't heeded and
the contract between Radius Water Ltd and CSIDC was not declared null and void. MLA
Ramchandra Sinhdev, who was a member of the PAC and is well acquainted with the matter,
said that it was like making a mockery of the Constitution. Nothing was more appalling than the
way the PAC report has been ignored. The main reason for this is that the contract has stiff
penalty clauses requiring the government to clear all outstanding loans, reimburse paid up equity
and also compensate the company for lost profits for the remaining years of the contract in case
of termination. However, if the government had the will it could initiate a re-negotiation of the
contract on better terms.
The Forum for Fact-finding Documentation and Advocacy (FFDA), an NGO from Raipur
has filed a Public interest Litigation (PIL) in the Chhattisgarh High Court challenging the
privatization of the river Sheonath. The Union of India, state of Chhattisgarh and Madhya
Pradesh and Radius Water Limited have been included as the respondents in the PIL. However,
the case is still pending in court and there have been no directives or reliefs provided to the
petitioner.
5.3.2 Other Instances - After the success of the Sheonath privatisation, a series of
privatisation contracts of other rivers have also taken place. The Kelo, Kurkut, Shabri, Kharun,
and Maand rivers have, one after the other, been handed over to private companies. The 95 km
long Kelo river passes through Raigarh and is its main source of water. In 1991, Jindal Steel and
Power Ltd set up a sponge iron factory in Raigarh with a capacity of producing 5 lakh tonnes of
iron every year. As it expanded, it set up a power plant too. In 1996 it made a bid to lift water
from the Kelo, but the government refused, saying that it would cause a drinking water shortage.
When JSPL persisted, the government caved in. Not only was JSPL allowed to take water from

44
the Kelo, it was also allowed to erect a stop dam that enabled it to lift 35,400 cubic metres of
water every day from the river. When the people of Bonda Tikra and other villages on the banks
of the river felt the impact of increasing water shortages, they began to protest. The farmers of
Bonda Tikra and Gudgahan villages were most affected because their lands had been taken over
earlier in the name of another irrigation project and the only way they could irrigate their fields
was from the waters of the Kelo river. The battle against JSPL resulted in marches,
demonstrations and rallies. Tribal farmers started a hunger strike and on January 26 th 1998,
Satyabhama Saura died of hunger. Apart from the Kelo, the Kurkut river too has been affected
by various plants that JSPL has erected as mentioned earlier.
A large part of the Shabri river that flows through Dantewada district is under the
occupancy of Essar Steel Chhattisgarh Ltd. Essar has a pipeline network from Dantewada to the
port of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. It sends iron-ore slurry through this pipeline using
the force of the water from the Shabri river. Industrial houses such as Monnet Ispat and Neco
Jaiswal have private dams on the Kharoon river in Raipur. Neco Jaiswal lifts 11.5 mld and
Monnet Ispat 7.5 mld water from the Kharoon river. Lafarge India possesses rights to 3 mld of
water from the Sheonath river. The NTPC power plant at Sipat in Bilaspur is being supplied
water from the Hasdev Bango dam. Finally there is the issue of over 30 villages in Dantewara
district and large tracts of virgin forests being submerged by the Polavaram dam to be built on
the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh which is currently under litigation in the Supreme Court.
Here too there is the question of violation of the consultation provisions of PESA. The EIA
report is based on a study done in 1985 which has become obsolete due to later re-design of the
dam to make it larger. Even this faulty report has not been put to public scrutiny through a public
hearing (SANDRP 2005). The situation has been aggravated by the fact that most of the villagers
in the proposed submergence zone have been forced to flee due to the ongoing armed conflict
between the State forces and Salwa Judum on one side and the Maoist rebels on the other.

6.4 Mining
Mining of coal, iron ore, bauxite and limestone which are all crucial raw materials for
industrial development causes not only initial displacement but also later problems due to
pollution of land and water sources close to the mines. The Chhattisgarh government has earned
around Rs. 900 crores royalty on coal, bauxite and iron ores during fiscal 2007-08. The state had
earlier earned Rs. 832 crores royalty revenue in the fiscal year 2006-07 and Rs.737
crores in the fiscal year 2005-06. Korba district which is abundant in coal and bauxite topped the
list as the highest revenue contributor till December 2008 with Rs. 371 crores followed by
Korea and Raigarh districts with Rs. 94 crores and Rs 56 crores respectively (DPRCG 2009).
Yet when it comes to the status of the tribals who live near these mines the situation is
abominable. There are no in depth studies of the neglect of the development of these tribal areas
that are contiguous to these rich money spinners for the government and the industrial houses
which have the licenses. Now there are proposals for opening up more mines. Some of the major
problem areas are discussed below.
6.4.1 Rao Ghat - The Rao Ghat hills are a sacred area for the tribals of North Bastar
Today in Bastar the Bhoomkal Manjhi system of traditional governance is going on among the
Manjhi, Sarkar, Pargana, Chalkis, Permad, Gyata, Pujaris and Barelas according to their
primitive tradition. The hero of the Bhoomkal movement against the British in 1911, Gundadhar,
has been commemorated in the Raoghat hills and there is also a huge temple of Parwatraj and

45
Maoli Mata there. Raoghat is also known as Raodongri. There are many herbal plants on this hill
which has a huge forest cover. Consequently mining on this hill is against the primitive culture
of the tribes. In the month June 2007, a huge crowd of tribals demonstrated against the proposed
mining of Rao Ghat hill. However, because of the rich iron ore deposits there and public and
private sector steel companies like the Steel Authority of India Limited, Neco Jaiswal Steels
Limited, Monet Ispat Limited and Tata Steel are keen to acquire this land. The main obstacle for
them ironically is not the opposition of the tribals through their Gram Sabhas but the necessity of
getting a clearance from the MoEF for conversion of forest land for non-forest use and the
environmental clearance regarding the social and environmental impacts of the mining activities.
There is a piquant situation prevailing in the area at the moment. The businessmen in the two
towns of Narayangarh and Antagarh are vying with each other to get the township for the
proposed mines situated near their towns. The tribal people of the area on the other hand said
they have decided to oppose the setting up of the mines and are determined to fight against
giving up their lands and forests. However, till date there has been no notification from the
government regarding land acquisition and so there is no formal cause for action either at the
grassroots or legally.
6.4.2 Coal - Sarguja, Jashpur, Raigarh and Bilaspur districts are the coal zones in
Chhattisgarh. It is estimated that about 30,000 hectares of land have been leased out to the South
Eastern Coalfields Limited for coal mining causing massive displacement of tribals (George
2008). The demand for coal has gone up tremendously from both power and other industries.
Consequently there is going to be even more displacement and pollution on account of coal
mining. So the MoEF and the Ministry of Coal have agreed to reduce the delay in implementing
projects related to coal exploration and production. There has been a policy announcement that
areas having dense and moderately dense forest cover will not be available for coal mining (TOI
2009). According to the latest forest survey data of India, out of the total forest cover, 57% is
under dense and moderately dense canopy and 42% under open forests, defined as areas where
the canopy cover is between 10% and 40% (FSI 2008). But it is the areas with lesser forest cover
that are more densely populated and so the forestdwellers living there, who are mostly tribals
will be affected by this new policy. According to preliminary estimates, around 50,000 ha of
forest area will need to be diverted for coal exploration and production in the coming decade for
Coal India Ltd (TOI ibid). While the concern for the environment is being articulated there is no
concern being shown for the large numbers of people who are likely to be displaced as a
consequence of this increased coal mining activity.
6.4.3 Corruption in Coal Mining - Even though not directly related to violation of
PESA the corruption in the operations of the Southeastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) which is a
subsidiary of Coal India Limited and is headquartered in Bilaspur which runs all the coal mines
in Chhattisgarh deserves mention. The tribals are mostly the miners and are also the residents in
the areas near the mines and so are the most affected. There is an unholy nexus between the coal
mafia and the officials of SECL and the latter have refused to obey even the dictates of the Prime
Minister's Office (Amit and Gupta 2008). Congress Party Member of Parliament from Dhanbad
Chandra Sekhar Dubey had between August 13th to December 13th 2007, written at least half a
dozen letters to the Prime Minister requesting him to streamline the functioning of SECL. The
PMO subsequently wrote to the Coal Ministry (MoC) to look into the affairs of the SECL, but on
all occasions it failed to get any active response from the MoC. Dubey in his letter had accused
vested interests in the SECL of defalcating crores of rupees every year in the name of
transportation of coal from mines to washeries and the reluctance of the SECL officials in
46
allowing new players to set up their coal washing units in the area. SECL could earn only Rs 800
crores as profit in the fiscal 2006-07, whereas it could have been more than Rs 30,000 crore if
the government had reduced this defalcation. The Prime Minister had advised that possibilities of
setting up new coal washeries in the area of the SECL should be explored to enhance the
production of washed coal. Alleging that the washery business in the area was monopolised by
one company, Dubey in his letter to the Prime Minister stated that the officials were in league
with this company Aryan Coal Beneficiations which monopolises the washery business. The
SECL was advised by the MoC to move the Chhattisgarh High Court for an interim order to
initiate suitable action for leasing of land to another firm Maruti Clean Coal and Power Limited
(MCCPL). The MoC had also clearly directed SECL to file an application before the Katghora
Civil Judge in Chhattisgarh to withdraw the status quo order passed by the said court. Angered
by the indifferent attitude of the SECL, the MCCPL Director Ramavtar Agrawal wrote a letter
to the PMO requesting the latter to expedite the execution of the lease deed as per the MoC's
earlier directives. However, Agrawal did not receive any response to his letter dated September
18, 2007, which also alleged that SECL was not moving the case in accordance with the
guidelines of the MoC. Now there is also a case registered by the CBI against SECL officials
and transporters for the heavy defalcation of funds through false vouchering leading to losses in
crores of rupees.
6.4.4 Jashpur - This district along with the neighboring Sarguja and Korea districts has
become the epicentre of new mining leases for a variety of minerals like coal and precious
stones. Notices have been served to hundreds of villagers regarding land acquisition without the
holding of either Gram Sabhas or EIA report appraisal public hearings. On 13 th June 2009
hundreds of people organised under the banner of Jan Sangharsh Zila Samiti held a protest rally
in Kunkuri town in Jashpur against this indiscriminate issuance of mining and prospecting
licences to industrial houses without following the basic legal requirements of public
consultation. The main demand was that the provisions of PESA and the Environment Protection
Act which both make it mandatory to get the consent of the people should be strictly followed
before the granting of mining leases to companies.
6.4.5 Bailadila - The Bailadila Deposit No. 3 of the 40 kms long Bailadila iron ore lode
too has been awarded to Essar Limited for development in a new lease agreement with the
Chhattisgarh Government (Indiaprwire 2007) . The original NMDC mines at Bacheli developed
since 1968 had not only displaced tribals but also heavily polluted the river Shankhni and the
surrounding countryside thus affecting the livelihood of tribals residing nearby. Despite being
India's largest iron ore producer and exporter the NMDC had not been able to make operational
the mining lease of an area of 3,308.04 hectares in Bailadila Deposit No. 3 that it had got on Feb
3rd 1977 for a period of three decades. The lease expired on Feb 8th 2007. The development of
the third portion of the iron ore lode which is close to the town of Dantewara and in a forested
area peopled by tribals will also lead to further displacement and pollution. So far the tribals in
the villages which are most likely to be affected have not been issued any notices and neither
have any Gram Sabha meetings been held. Yet at some point of time in the future these lands
have to be acquired for mining. Apart from Essar Ltd there is the possibility of Tata Steel Ltd too
being given prospecting licenses in some of the other as yet unexploited deposits of the Bailadila
lode which has a total of 14 deposits to feed its proposed steel plant at Lohandiguda. Thus there
is every possibility that a major part of Dantewada district will become the epicentre of
displacement of tribals.

47
 6.4.6 BALCO - The biggest Aluminium smelting company in Chhattisgarh is Bharat
Aluminium Company which is now owned by Sterlite Industries Limited which is a subsidiary of
the London Based Vedanta Group. This plant is situated in Korba district and has mining leases
for Bauxite in a number of villages. The mining area goes on increasing every year. Even though
initially when the plant was established PESA was not in operation, from 1997 onwards the
provisions of PESA had been incorporated into the Chhattisgarh Panchayati Raj Act and so it is
mandatory to take the permission of the Gram Sabha for any further extension of the mining
area. However, this is not being done and so here too PESA is being violated. There have been
people's protests from time to time but these have been put down by the use of repressive and
cooptive tactics by the company and the administration (George ibid).

6.5 Forests
The major source of problems for tribals in designated forest areas in Chhattisgarh is in
the areas protected under the Wildlife Protection Act. The creation of national parks and
sanctuaries involve displacement and curtailment of rights of tribals living in those reserve forest
areas so designated. Recently two wild life sanctuaries (WLS) in Chhattisgarh have been
designated as new tiger reserves as under -

Sl. No. Name of the proposed new Tiger Reserve District Area (in sq. kms)
1 Udanti and Sita Nadi Wildlife Sanctuaries Raipur 1580

2. Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary Bilaspur 963

Dozens of villages in both these sanctuaries are to be evacuated without proper

compensation and rehabilitation. The forest department staff have conducted meetings with the
tribal villagers, Baigas in the case of Achanakmar and Gonds in the case of Udanti and Sitanadi
and in both cases they have been told that they will be evacuated but they have not been shown
any alternative sites with adequate agricultural land of good quality and other provisions. Gram
Sabha meetings have not been held specifically to get their agreement regarding this project.
This has now become mandatory under the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and other Forest
Dwellers Recognition of Rights Act 2006 also. The Navrachna Samaj Sevi Sanstha and Adivasi
Mahapanchayat have tried to hold meetings with the affected villagers in the Achanakmar area
but without much success in terms of mobilisation. Similarly in the Sita Nadi WLS the NGO
Khoj is active along with the Nadi Ghati Morcha. Here the problem has been aggravated due to
the presence of Naxalite rebels who ambushed a team of 40 policemen killing 12 on May 10th
2009 near Madapoti village in Dhamtari district which is close to the sanctuary(Indian Express
2009). There was a movement within the sanctuary area against the proposed displacement but
after the Naxal attack there has been a police crackdown and some people of this movement have
been arrested on charges of aiding the Naxalites.
Incidentally the area near these sanctuaries have also been found to be rich in diamonds
and other precious stones (George op cit). Some preliminary exploratory mining has also taken
place. Thus there is the possibility of further displacement due to extensive mining in these areas
which will be done by disregarding the rules that prevent such activities within a 25 km radius of
protected areas. The PESA provisions will once again be violated and the interests of the tribals
will be jeopardised to secure the elite demand for tiger protecion and diamond jewellery.

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 Another project that is coming up in forest areas in Chhattisgarh is that of elephant
reserves. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wild Life) (PCCF(WL)), Chhattisgarh
vide letter No. WL/736 dated 26.6.2006 has submitted a proposal to the Director, Project
Elephant, MoEF to include three suitable areas of the State as Elephant Reserves for managing
elephant populations and their habitats and reducing human-elephant conflicts. These three
proposed Elephant Reserves are: "Badalkhol - Manora", "Tamorpingla" and "Lemru" located in
the forest divisions of Jashpur, North Sarguja and Korba respectively. The Directorate of Project
Elephant, MoEf has constituted an expert team consisting of Shri. M.K.Appaya, Retd.
PCCF(WL), Karnataka, Member Project Elephant Steering Committee; Dr. Sushant Chowdhury,
Professor, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and Shri. A.N.Prasad, Inspector General of
Forests and Director, Project Elephant, MoEF to undertake the inspection of the sites and submit
their recommendations for necessary consideration of MoEF on the matter. Accordingly, the
team undertook site inspections in March 2007 and came out with a report favouring this
initiative. However, the tribal people residing in these areas who face the problem of elephant
incursions into their fields said that they have not been consulted in this matter. The already
established sanctuaries to be so developed are Samorsot WLS (430.36 sq.kms), Tamorpingla
WLS (608.52 sq.kms) and Badalkhol WLS (116.05 sq.kms) in the two districts of Sarguja and
Jashpur. An intervening area of 323.75 sq.kms between the sanctuaries will be targeted for
displacement for reducing human-elephant conflicts. The other Elephant Reserve to be declared
is Lemru covering Forest Ranges of Lemru, Balco, Kudmura and Korba in Korba district. These
ranges have not been declared as a sanctuary yet and so the whole process of land acquisition
will have to take place involving PESA. The forest ranges are characterized by high dense
cover, perennial water sources and moist riverine forest having 15-20 villages each.
Once again this proposal of setting up elephant reserves displays a blinkered approach to
environmental and social problems. The problem of human-elephant conflict has been created by
indiscriminate industrialisation which has led to encroachments into elephant habitats for mining
of coal and bauxite in Chhattisgarh and also in neighbouring Jharkhand. Apart from reducing
virgin forest areas, this has also reduced the availability of water in the streams and tanks leading
to elephants invading human habitations. Creation of elephant reserves won't solve the problem
as the humans that are going to be displaced from their traditional villages will still have to
depend on the same forests for their livelihoods in the absence of proper rehabilitation and
resettlement. It is pertinent to note that these elephant conservation plans which have been drawn
up with the help of animal conservationists do not discuss the ways in which the tribals to be
displaced are to be rehabilitated to their satisfaction (Indian Express 2006).

6.6 Biofuels
A major new area of concern for tribals is the stress on the production of biofuel from
jatropha to be grown on wastelands in Chhattisgarh. It has been propagated that unlike biofuels
made from crops such as soyabean and maize, jatropha is inedible and grows on non-arable land
and needs little water or care. Chhattisgarh has been projected by its government as the country's
biodiesel hub. The logic being peddled is that if 10 per cent of India's estimated 60 million
hectares of non-arable land is cultivated with jatropha or other biofuel yielding plants, the
country could produce 4-5 million tonnes of biodiesel a year, or about 10 per cent of current
diesel demand. Chhattisgarh hopes to generate 1,000 MW, or a third of the state's existing
generating capacity, from alternative energy sources. The state has planted 160,000 hectares of
jatropha. However, in a typically blinkered approach this has totally overlooked the fact that

49
these so called unarable lands are actually used for grazing purposes and supports the small
livestock animal husbandry which is a crucial part of the household economy of the poor and
especially the tribals. Moreover, as has now been proved after a few years of experimentation the
promise of jatropha providing good returns from cultivation on barren land without any inputs
and care has been belied (Handique 2007).
To show the possibilities of jatropha, Winrock International, a Delhi based NGO, in
2005 launched a pilot project in the village of Ranidhera, some 150 kms from Raipur. Winrock
supplied four generators powered on jatropha oil, along with machines to crush seeds and filter
the raw oil. Some 25,000 jatropha saplings were planted on roadsides. Today all 110 homes in
Ranidhera have electricity for four hours each evening (Misra, 2008). The people say that the
greatest benefit is that children can now study at night. Villagers pay Rs. 50 a month for two
lights which is comparable with the cost of a month's supply of kerosene. However, the whole
project is heavily subsidised by a grant from Department for International Development (DFID)
of the United Kingdom and has to source jatropha seeds from the market as the roadside
plantations do not produce enough.
Moreover jatropha is a very poisonous weed that is not eaten by livestock (Popham
2008). Many developed countries today spend huge sums of money to eliminate it. The plant is
actually native to tropical America and today occurs in most parts of India. In Chhattisgarh,
people use its wild varieties for making fences to keep out animals. Introducing this plant on
such a large scale in mono-cultures without conducting proper feasibility studies has
put Chhattisgarh's rich biodiversity and small livestock animal husbandry in serious jeopardy.
This scheme to use the common lands of the villages has been launched without any discussion
in the Gram Sabha and so is yet another violation of PESA which might in the end prove as
harmful as mining and other industrial activities.

6.7 Non-Nationalised Non-Timber Forest Produce and Trader-Moneylenders

An important feature of the tribal areas are the "Haats" or weekly village markets. Over
centuries these Haats have developed as places where tribals meet on a specific day of the week
for buying and selling of goods. A Haat is also a common place for interaction with family
friends and people of neighbouring villages. Unprocessed non-timber forest produce (NTFP) that
are not nationalised are major trading commodities in these Haats. These Haats provide the only
interface, however imperfect, between the tribal and the mainstream economy. For the
unsuspecting tribals, the Haat has for long been a place of exploitation. Small traders, moving
from one weekly Haat to another, take advantage of the innocence of the tribals, buy on their
own terms and outwit them in pricing, grading, weighing and counting.
The Haats are a buyers' market due to the extreme poverty of the tribals which forces
them to sell the produce at low prices that the traders offer. The small trader of the village Haat,
sells his goods to the trader at the Mandi or Up-mandi, the wholesale market, where they are
stored in cold storages. Later the NTFP are sold to bigger traders in the large cities in the lean
season. The small trader has a 50 per cent margin, while the mandi trader has a margin higher
than 100 per cent depending on the demand and supply situation in the country as a whole for
holding the stock in cold storage. The village tribals, most often children who spend weeks
collecting the produce from the forest, probably earn less than 10 per cent of the final price in the
big cities and even less in the case of export. The traders also act as moneylenders and use the

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power provided by loans extended to the tribals to extract even more profit from them in the
dealings with regard to NTFP trading (Ganguly and Chaudhury, 2003).
PESA specifically provides for the control of trade in non-nationalised NTFP and the
regulation of the Haats in general as also the practice of moneylending by the Gram Sabha in
Scheduled Areas in particular. However, nowhere in Chhattisgarh are these powerful provisions
being implemented. Thus, for better returns to the tribals the following steps should be taken -
a. NTFPs should be properly defined and all NTFPs, including the nationalised ones, should
be handed over to the Gram Sabha. For management of certain high revenue earning
NTFPs like Tendu Leaf, Sal seed, Harra, etc., tribal co-operatives should be set up. A
mutually agreed plan of action needs to be developed at the Gram Sabha. Necessary
amendments in forest laws and rules and other related statutes need to be carried out to
clear ambiguities in the definition of NTFPs and to outline ownership, control and
management functions and to fix duties and responsibilities of different stakeholders.
b. The capacity of the Gram Sabha to own, control and manage NTFPs should be built up.
They should be supported adequately to create an interface with different agencies - both
government and private - for control, management and trade of NTFPs. Transfer of
ownership rights to the Gram Sabha doesn't mean that the forest department ceases to
have a role. They should constantly help the Gram Sabha by providing trade-related
information to them and help in marketing arrangements, collection procedures etc.
c. High transaction and later storage costs related to the trade of NTFPs at Haats denies the
tribals a remunerative price. Thus, it is imperative that the provisions of PESA are
implemented and local NGOs and the government agencies involved in the procurement
of the nationalised NTFPs, together strengthen the Gram Sabhas to market their produce
collectively. Pre-processing of NTFP at the village or Haat level with the use of simple
machines should be encouraged once again under the supervision of the Gram Sabha. The
Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED),
which is the umbrella organisation in this regard, should take an active role in training
and supporting a federation of NTFP collection and processing cooperatives of the tribals
in Chhattisgarh.

6.8 Maoist Movement and Salwa Judum

The People’s War Group which has now renamed itself as the CPI (Maoist) has been
entrenched in the tribal districts of south Chhattisgarh and especially in Dantewara for over two
decades now. They were also there earlier in the northern districts in strength for some time but
currently they are not there anymore. Parts of Dantewara district, specifically the Abujhmarh
forest area, which is unsurveyed to this day, have largely passed out of the control of the state
administration. As in some other states in India, the growth of Maoist influence is largely
attributable to the development deficit arising from the neglect of tribal interests and aspirations
by the formal political and administrative system (Planning Commission 2008). Around 1980,
CPI (People’s War Group) started an organization in the area of present-day Dantewada district,
called the Dandakaranya Adivasi Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (DAKMS). Also important is the
creation of Sanghams in villages. These were intended to gradually replace the traditional
structures of authority at the village level, articulate issues of the village like land, access to
forests, fair wages and higher prices for NFTP and settle disputes. By 2000, when the state of

51
Chhattisgarh was created, the CPI (Maoist)] had created substantial bases in the forest areas of
Bastar, Kanker, and Dantewada which were under the control of the Janathana Sarkar set up by
them (CPJC 2007).
This situation was obviously not to the liking of the government and so gradually security
forces began to be sent to fight the Maoists and regain control of the area from them. The need to
do so became even more urgent in the new millennium as the rich iron ore in the area grew in
value due to the shortage of iron ore elsewhere and many industrial houses signed MoUs with the
Chhattisgarh government for opening mines and setting up steel plants in Dantewara. In the
summer of 2005, news reports started appearing of a ‘spontaneous’, ‘self-initiated’, ‘people’s
movement’ against the Maoists, known as the Salwa Judum. A literal translation of this Gondi
term, is not the government preferred ‘peace campaign’, but ‘purification hunt’. The district
administration claims people in some 200 villages began mobilizing against the Maoists, going
on processions and holding meetings. The people were apparently upset with the Maoist strike
call on collecting Tendu leaves and their opposition to development works like road construction
and grain levies. However, this characterisation of the Salwa Judum is inaccurate. The fact is that
the Salwa Judum is being led by sections of local elites, contractors and traders, that it is
officially part of anti-naxal initiatives, and that it is being actively supported by the State and
Central Governments.
The net result of the armed confrontation between the Maoists and the Salwa Judum is
that innocent tribals in the deep forests have suffered. They have either been displaced and
forced to live in camps on the roadside or they have fled into the neighbouring states of Andhra
Pradesh, Orissa and Maharashtra so as to escape the wanton killings and insecurity that is
prevailing in their homeland. Thus in a sense this too is a violation of PESA as the government
in its bid to tackle the armed Maoists has displaced the villagers without giving them an option to
continue in their villages. Such is the antipathy of both the Maoists and the government to the
villagers that they have actively opposed any attempt to rehabilitate them back in the villages.
The NGO Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA) tried to initiate a process by which the people
who had fled to Andhra Pradesh could come back and begin living in their villages once again.
The process was started in 2008-09 in Nendra village and was sought to be extended to other
villages. However, the Maoists threatened the workers of the Ashram and they had to withdraw
even though the villagers stayed on with material support from the Ashram. In 2009-10 when the
VCA tried to extend this experiment once again to other villages, both the government through
its police and the Maoists created many obstacles. Finally, the government razed the Ashram
premises in the village of Kanwalnar near Dantewara town to the ground stating that it was built
on government land. The land in fact was village common land and had been given free on lease
to the Ashram by the Gram Sabha by a resolution to conduct its activities. However, the district
administration overruled this resolution of the Gram Sabha and passed an order for the
demolition of the VCA premises on 17th May 2009. This once again demonstrates the total
neglect of the PESA provisions and devaluation of the tribal Gram Sabha by the government.
The attack on the VCA is symptomatic of the administration in Chhattisgarh which is
bent on promoting industrialisation at the cost of the environment and tribal livelihoods.
Dantewada is rich in mineral resources and is being eyed by the biggest corporations in India and
abroad for the setting up of industrial plants. Kawalnar village where the VCA was
headquartered has been singled out as the site for the setting up of the washery and township for
the Bailadila Deposit 3 mines and so the people there are slated to be displaced. Moreover, the

52
opposition of the VCA to the Salwa Judum which extends to collecting data and testimonies in
support of the petition filed against it in the Supreme Court too has put it in the bad books of the
Government (Kumar 2009). Consequently the government does not want the VCA or any other
NGO to work in the area. Similarly the Maoists too would not like an NGO professing Gandhian
ideals to be influential among the tribals because they want to mould them in their own ideology
of armed revolution.

7. Remedial Action
The above review has clearly established that PESA has not been implemented properly
in Chhattisgarh and has instead been violated continuously so as to promote mining,
industrialisation and wildlife protection to the detriment of the interests of the tribal population
and the environment. Hence, there is a need to ensure better compliance with not only PESA but
also allied statutes such as the Environment Protection Act and the National Rehabilitation
Policy which together can ensure a more just dispensation for the tribals in the state. To this end
some suggestions are being made here regarding the strengthening of the process of consultation
with the people to bring about a truly democratic dispensation that is more amenable to the
tribals and in accordance with the spirit of PESA and the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution
which stipulates that all laws, policies and governance in tribal areas should accord with the
cultural and livelihood interests of the tribals. The Environment Protection Act is discussed first,
followed by the Rehabilitation Policy and finally the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme is explored as the single most important legal and policy initiative for the
implementation of PESA.

7.1. Environment Protection Act

The two most important laws for the protection of the environment in India are the Forest
(Conservation) Act (FCA), 1980 and the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), 1986.
The MoEF which is supposed to administer the implementation of these acts impartially, has
instead acted in a manner that is biased towards industrial development. Since 1980, the ministry
has allowed the diversion of 1,140,176 ha of forest land for non-forest use under FCA.
Clearances for 3,11,220 ha, a quarter of all clearances since 1980, have been granted after 2003.
Permission has been granted for the establishment of roads, industries, dams, mines and other
developmental activities. The ministry has also granted clearances under EPA with similar
alacrity by allowing the setting up of 4,016 projects between 1986 and 2006 (Kohli and Menon
2008). At the same time the MoEF has opposed the granting of leasehold rights to tribals who
have been cultivating forest land for generations and has effectively sabotaged the
implementation of the STOFDA (CSD 2009).
The EIA notification passed in 1994 gave teeth to the EPA making mandatory public EIA
reports for environmental clearances for developmental projects. In 1997 this was amended to
include the holding of public hearings were the EIA reports were to be scrutinised by the affected
people. However, all these provisions remained only on paper and in March 2005, the Supreme
Court ordered the closure of all units operating without environmental clearances in response to a
petition filed before it. However, soon after, in July 2005, the MoEF introduced a procedure for
seeking temporary working permissions and post-facto clearances through an amendment to
the EIA notification which as has been detailed above was promptly utilised by JSPL for its
power plant in Raigarh district. EIA procedures were further amended in 2006 but none of the

53
suggestions advanced by NGOs and activists to improve the regulatory process and enhance its
transparency, were taken into consideration. Instead, the reforms focused on speedy clearances.
Neither does the MoEF peform its monitoring function after giving these clearances to see
whether the conditions imposed are being adhered to or not due to a severe shortage of staff and
infrastructure (Chouhan, 2009). Despite this lax governance the industrial lobby wants even less
regulation and as a consequence an expert group consisting of bureacrats and industry
representatives was set up to see how clearances could be speeded up further. The
recommendations of this group have sought to further dilute the public hearing provision and the
right of affected people to voice their opposition to the deleterious environmental and social
aspects of these projects (GoI, 2008). This has prompted the MoEF to come up with yet another
draft EIA ruling which further dilutes its provisions in favour of industrialists at the cost of the
environment and the affected people.
Taking into consideration this sorry state of affairs which prevails all over the country
and especially in Chhattisgarh the guidelines for EIA set out by the United Nations Environment
Programme should be incorporated in an amended EIA notification so as to ensure greater
transparency in environmental governance and sustainability and equity in development (UNEP
2002). These guidelines are a little technical in nature but have been mentioned here in detail
because there needs to be a greater awareness among policy makers and activists regarding the
procedure for EIA considering that it is crucial to the safeguarding of the interests not only of the
project affected persons but also the country as a whole. The guidelines are as follows -
The criteria for acceptable and unacceptable impact should be clearly defined and
standards for these criteria determined as under:
a) A risk standard for acceptable carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic toxic risks,
b) Allowable ecological footprint (eco-footprint) standard which means that the maximum
ecological resources that can be utilised for a particular project without affecting the
sustainability of local and global eco-systems must be specified,
c) An area vulnerability standard,
d) A socio-economic conflict potential standard,
e) An allowable cost to environment standard.
f) Limit ribbon development along the roads leading to the proposed project site so as to
minimise further social and environmental impacts.
An independent Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (EIAA) should be set up as
the nodal agency to evaluate the EIAs that are submitted to the MoEF. The EIAA should be an
autonomous body with the same powers as the Election Commission, with concomitant
accountability to discharge its duties with due diligence and within timeframes defined by the
EPA Act/ Rules, in particular with regard to taking decisions on proposed projects.
Detailed guidelines for conducting EIAs and for project appraisal should be prepared by a
committee constituted specifically for this purpose by the EIAA and translated into all Indian
languages recognized by the Indian Constitution and also dialects which are spoken by tribals.
These guidelines, besides having methods for modeling for pollutant transport through different
pathways and predicting impacts on various types of receptors, shall also contain methods for
doing risk analysis, eco-footprinting, vulnerability assessment and mapping, conflict analysis,
environmental costing, central place hierarchization which analyses the extent to which the
project site has centralised resource use and development in the area, and gravity modeling

54
which analyses the pulls on population flow that the project site exerts on surrounding areas to
ensure compliance with impact criteria.
The potentially affected people of a proposed project should be provided with technical
support to do the EIA and submit it under their signatures to the EIAA and other regulatory
authorities. Technical portions of the EIA may be sub-contracted to consultants recognized by
EIAA but their work will be supervised by the persons who are to be affected by the
project. Special arrangements to engage NGOs and CSOs in the process should be made in case
of tribal populations being affected by the project. The project proponent should provide all
necessary information and non-monetary assistance for doing the EIA.
The power to grant and revoke the Consent for Operation (CfO) for existing facilities
shall be handed over to local self governments - Panchayat Raj Samitis, Zilla Parishads,
municipalities and municipal corporations in a time bound manner once they have been
technically empowered. The power to grant and revoke the Consent for Establishment (CfE) for
proposed projects facilities should also be handed over to local self-governments five years after
powers for granting or revoking the CfO has been transferred to them.
The project proponent should identify and provide details for a minimum of at least two
distinct alternate candidate sites for consideration by regulatory authorities. The EIAA may
constitute a committee to identify and demarcate greenfield sites all over the country for different
types of projects facilities within the next 5 years that meet the standards for environmental
clearance. Guidelines for site selection should be prepared by an EIAA constituted committee,
and translated into all languages recognized by the Indian Constitution. Standardized base terms
of reference (ToR) for doing EIAs may be prepared by the EIAA. Depending on site conditions,
the EIAA may specify additional terms for specific projects.
Public hearings shall be open to all. No waiver of public hearings shall be permitted
under any circumstance. Certain proposed projects like oil refineries (due to product transport),
may have impacts at locations far from the plant site. To allow non-locals who may be affected
by such projects to be a part of the public consultation process, the EIAA shall advertise details
of the proposed project on the internet, and at least in one national daily newspaper, and at least
in one regional daily newspaper in each state in which the proposed project may have an impact
and provide six weeks for the public hearing and for public comments to be received. All
statements made in the public hearing and public consultation process should be recorded and
appended to the EIA.
A necessary, though not sufficient condition, for the grant of prior environmental
clearance for a proposed project or the expansion of an existing one, should be that it must not
violate acceptable impact criteria and other standards that have been decided by the EIAA. One
of the compliance conditions that the EIAA shall put on local self-government in whose
jurisdiction the facility is located, will be site-specific conditions.
The EIAA, with the help of Pollution Control Boards, should identify and publish every
two years for each industry the best available technologies, materials and practices that help
minimize environmental impacts. Environmental clearance conditions for proposed projects
should specify only such technologies, materials and practices, as identified, unless the EIA
report for a proposed project is able to identify better technologies, materials and practices that
improve environmental protection.

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 The environmental clearance for a proposed project should be obtained prior to
finalization of the detailed project report and financial closure for the project. The validity of a
prior environmental clearance should be for two years for all projects and a fresh application for
clearance should be made upon the expiry of this prior clearance.
One of the mandatory compliance conditions for all projects should be the reporting of
annual quantities of all pollutant emissions (including greenhouse gases and hazardous
substances) - gaseous, liquid, solid (including sludge), biological, radiological [released to air,
water (surface and groundwater)], and soil (surface and by injection into sub-surface soils), both
onsite and offsite (locations to be reported). The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shall
maintain a register of Pollutants and Hazardous Substances Release Inventory (PHSRI). The
facility's CfO shall be revoked if emissions exceed those specified in its environmental
clearance, CfE and CfO.
A project attributable health risk, its ecological footprint, actual conflict that it has
caused, a computation of the environmental costs that it has externalised on to society and central
place hierarchy and gravity model studies should be done once every two years by the impacted
community with appropriate technical help from designated agencies funded by the MoEF. The
facility's environment clearance, CfO should be revoked if these indices indicate any undue
impact on the environment or exceed the standards.
The EIAA should set up a monitoring cell that will monitor compliance of conditions put
on all facilities that have been granted environmental clearances. Non-compliance of conditions
shall attract action against the offending facility, including revocation of its environmental
clearance. This is the most important recommendation as at present the MoEF and the pollution
control boards at the centre and the states are not doing this properly mainly due to staff and
infrastructure constraints.
A certification process for consultants who wish to assist affected communities to
conduct EIAs should be instituted. The certification may be renewed every five years on proof of
fulfillment of certificate-issue conditions. Continuing education and orientation on
environmental impact assessment should be provided by educational institutions and other
professional bodies to all those involved in conducting, appraising or just understanding EIAs -
local self governments, consultants, regulatory authorities, non-government organizations, trade
unions, industry, associations and the general public.
Defining criteria for acceptable or unacceptable impact will decrease the subjectivity of
decision-making by regulatory authorities. The proposed project will be unacceptable if any of
the following standards are not met:
a) Risk (to human health) standard: The standard may be set for carcinogenic and
non-carcinogenic risks posed by human activity. It may be defined as not exceeding
an additional lifetime cancer risk of one in a million chance for carcinogenic agents,
and not exceeding a hazard index (HI - ratio of exposure to toxic concentration of an
agent to its reference concentration that is known to be the maximum concentration
that causes no health effects) of one for non-carcinogenic agents, respectively, for
exposures of anthropogenic origin, and other than of background origin. While
computing health risk at a site, the cumulative risk due to all existing exposures,
except due to background ones, must be added to the risks posed by proposed facility,
and the cumulative risk may not exceed the defined standard.

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 b) Allowable ecological footprint standard: Eco-footprint analysis measures the ratio of
human activity in a given area to its capacity to sustain it, both factors expressed in
land units (land required for agriculture and forest produce, built up areas, power
generation, carbon sequestration to compensate for the carbon emissions from the
project, water area required for fisheries, area required for biodiversity, etc). The
allowable eco-footprint standard may be defined as the ratio of the eco-footprint of all
industry and services in an area to the bio-capacity of that area (both factors being
expressed in land units).
c) Area vulnerability standard: Area vulnerability analysis identifies, measures and maps the
general vulnerability of receptors to external impingements arising from the project.
For example sections of the population of differing economic, social, age, gender and
genetic factors will be affected differently due to impacts on livelihoods (crops,
fishing, etc), forests and biodiversity and monuments of an area due to external
impingement of various types and magnitudes. The specific vulnerability of some or
all these receptors to the specific impingement that the proposed project will make on
them has to be taken into consideration. For example if an area where a water-
polluting industry is proposed, has drinking water lakes, the specific vulnerability of
the area to the proposed project will be of particular importance. The standard will
define a general vulnerability threshold for an area and a specific vulnerability
threshold (for a proposed project), both of which are to be met independently.
d) Conflict potential standard:. Conflict analysis measures the potential conflicts that a
project may cause, in combination with other activity, in an area. A proposed project
facility may not exceed the conflict potential standard that it may cause along with
other projects existing in the area.
e) Environmental cost standard: Environmental impact costing puts an economic value to
the impact of a project on the environment and on human health. A proposed project
may not exceed an environmental cost standard. This standard in turn will have to be
below a determined fraction of the project cost at current value.

EIAs must mandatorily do risk and conflict assessment, area vulnerability analysis and
vulnerability assessment and mapping of the impacted area, ecological footprint analysis for the
proposed project, and central place hierarchization and gravity modeling and assess whether the
proposed project meets the required standards after considering the contribution of other
anthropogenic activity. Panchayat Raj Samitis, Zilla Parishads, municipalities and municipal
corporations may compute the bio-capacities and do general vulnerability analysis and mapping
for their villages and towns every two years, after receiving training for doing them. In addition,
site-specific conditions using central place theory (central place hierarchization and gravity
modeling) shall be imposed on the local self-government in whose jurisdiction the proposed
project is located. The local self-government shall comply with these conditions.
Only with such a decentralisation of the EIA and environmental monitoring process
involving extensive technical empowerment of local bodies and communities can the provisions
of PESA be implemented in the face of increasing modern industrial development. The ongoing
popular movements in Chhattisgarh for the implementation of PESA, EPA and EIA rules are
severely handicapped at present due to a lack of knowledge of the highly technical aspects of
environmental laws and regulations.

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7.2 Rehabilitation and Resettlement
The sorry manner in which people displaced due to development projects, especially the
tribals, have been rehabilitated and resettled so far is one of the main reasons for the burgeoning
opposition to such projects at a time when alternative free land and sustainable livelihoods are
hard to come by (Action Aid, Indian Social Institute and Laya op cit). The problems have arisen
mainly due to the anti-people nature of the colonial Land Acquisition Act 1894 and the poorly
conceived Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policies of the Central and State
Governments. Matters have now been compounded by the pendency in parliament of two bills -
one to amend the Land Acquisition Act and the other to enact a Rehabilitation and Resettlement
Act (Sakhuja 2008). The Land Acquisition bill enlarges the concept of public purpose to include
even mines and then provides for the government stepping in to acquire lands for private parties.
The Rehabilitation and Resettlement bill does not provide for land for land to displaced people
and also sets up a special appelate tribunal for hearing of grievances and deprives affected
persons the right of judicial remedy in courts. These bills have been currently held up due to the
opposition of some partners in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the
Centre. However, sooner or later they are likely to be enacted.
Thus, there is a need for a proper R&R Policy for Project Affected Persons (PAP) if the
kind of injustice that has been meted out to them so far in Chhattisgarh and elsewhere is to be
avoided in future. One such policy had been formulated by the National Alliance of People's
Movements and was submitted to the National Advisory Council of the first UPA Government in
2005 (NAC 2005). The salient features of this policy are as follows
7.2.1 Infrastructural Facilities
Wherever en-masse resettlement of populations after land acquisition is involved good
infrastructural facilities and basic minimum amenities are to be provided at the cost of the
acquiring agency (AA) to ensure that the resettled population in the new village or colony can
secure for themselves a reasonable standard of community life and can minimise the trauma
involved in displacement. The new resettlement sites must be reasonably habitable or be made
reasonably habitable and they should be well planned in all respects. They should have the
following facilities and resources as appropriate :
1. Roads within the resettled villages and an all weather road link to the nearest pucca road,
passages and easement rights for all the resettled families be adequately arranged.
2. Proper drainage as well as sanitation facilities executed before physical resettlement.
3. One or more assured sources of safe drinking water for each group of 25 families settled
in a pocket has to be ensured, capable of yielding enough water to meet the demand of at
least six litres per capita per day (lpcd) of safe drinking water and 40 lpcd of water for
other purposes.
4. Drinking water facilities for cattle through a pond/ borewell/ well with a trough.
5. Grazing land as per proportion acceptable in the state.
6. Pattas for housing plots and recognition as a revenue village or a settlement with a
panchayat or local self-government committee.

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7. Necessary plantation on common lands must be taken up under social forestry or agro-
forestry schemes financed by various Ministries of the Government so as to provide a
good environment to the resettlement site.
8. A reasonable number of Fair Price shops must be set up.
9. A Panchayat Office must be established in each new settlement.
10. One Primary Agricultural Co-operative Credit Society with facility for selling essential
consumer articles in every resettled village;
11. Village level Post Offices with facilities for opening saving accounts must be set up.
12. Appropriate seed-cum-fertilizer storages must be set up.
13. Efforts must be made to provide basic irrigation facilities to the agricultural land
allocated to the resettled families.
14. Institutional arrangements for training for employment and easy access to financial
institutions for availing of financial assistance must be made.
15. Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) must be immediately brought under operation in the
newly settled villages/colonies above. Institutions such as schools, supplemental nutrition
and health centers and community centers must be controlled and managed through some
local organization which either already exists or is newly formed, like the Gram Sabha or
Gram Panchayat, or Mahila Mandal);
16. All resettled families living below the poverty line receiving land in the resettled area for
agricultural purpose should also get free supply of seeds and irrigation from any public
source for cultivation of suitable crops free of cost for the first year and on loan basis for
subsequent two years.
17. All new villages established for resettlement of the PAPs shall be provided with suitable
transport facility which must include public transport facilities through local bus services
with the nearby growth centers and urban localities.
18. Burial and/ or cremation ground, depending on the castes and communities being
rehabilitated.
19. Facilities for sanitation, including individual toilet points.
20. Individual single electric connections (or connection through non-conventional sources of
energy like solar energy) for each household and for public lighting.
21. Sub health center within two kilometre range.
22. Primary Health Centre for each group of 20,000 population.
23. Playground for children.
24. One community center for every 500 families.
25. Places of worship and chowpal/tree platform for every 50 families for community
assembly.
26. Separate land must be earmarked for traditional tribal institutions.

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 27. Grazing ground and common land for food and fodder, especially in the case of biomass
dependent communities.
28. The forest dweller families must be provided, where possible, with their traditional rights
on NTFP and common property resources, if available close to the new place of
settlement. In case such families can continue their access or entry to such forest or
common property in the area close to the place of eviction, they must continue to enjoy
their earlier rights to the aforesaid sources of livelihood.
29. The beneficiaries of resettled area, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or economic
status, must be allowed to construct for themselves all other facilities essential for
community life by taking up suitable projects for which finances are available from
government schemes.
30. Appropriate security arrangements must be provided for the settlement if needed.
7.2.2 Agricultural Land
1. Any displaced person/ family engaged primarily in agricultural work, either as worker,
tenant or owner with or without legal title must be allotted agricultural land of two standard
hectares, if he or she exercises such an option. The title rights will be non-alienable.
Explanation 1: One standard hectare shall mean one hectare of agricultural land irrigated out
of any public irrigation scheme, 1.25 hectare of agricultural land irrigated/ irrigable from any
private source/ private or personal irrigation project, 1.5 hectare of agricultural land if the
land is non-irrigated and non-irrigable but duly rainfed, 2 hectares if the land allotted is
cultivable but non-irrigable plain land and 3 hectares if the land offered is wasteland, hilly
land, forest land, dry land in arid zone which require land development works for initiation of
cultivation, but is capable of being made cultivable.
Explanation 2 : Every major male adult member, dependent upon the landholding, jointly
or separately, and adult female member when unmarried, widowed or divorced, would be
considered as a separate family unit for all purposes of land allotment.
2. Allotment of irrigated land : The PAPs will have the first right to the land in the command
areas of irrigation projects for which they have been displaced. To make such land available,
the AA should acquire up to 50 percent of land in excess of 2 standard hectares from each
land holder benefiting from the new irrigation facilities in the command area of the irrigation
project. Consolidation of holdings would have to be undertaken, in such a way as to ensure
that PAPs from a village are allotted land in close proximity. In case the PAP agriculturist
chooses to be allotted land outside the command area, this option must be respected and the
cost of land development and irrigation of irrigable land allotted under the scheme would be
borne by the acquiring authority.
Explanation : It may be stressed that irrigated or at least irrigable land must be the rule, and
other categories only the exception where irrigated or irrigable land is impossible, the AA
shall bear the cost of organizing irrigation in the allotted land. A specific contract must be
signed by the AA with each individual family or group to provide the same within the
prescribed period. The allottee of land in the resettled area shall be provided with proper
rights and title on land, free from all encumbrances, following the land demarcation and
allotment procedure as per the Land Revenue Code.

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 3. Agricultural land for rehabilitation must be allotted in the joint name of husband and wife
except in the case of single parent households, or unmarried adult individuals.
4. Obligation of AA to bear the cost of development of culturable waste land: If land allotted
is wasteland, undulated, hilly, rocky, degraded, cost for improvement, development,
reclamation of the land including construction of contour bunds or other watershed
development schemes shall be borne by the Project Implementing Agency (PIA) and
implemented within a period not exceeding two years from the date of allotment of such
land, again based on a specific contract.
5. Allotment of land to displaced allottees of government land: The recipients of the
government agricultural land or Gram Sabha agricultural land, if displaced, shall be entitled
to the same rights as a land-owner, even if such allottee did not have physical possession,
appropriate record or document to prove such possession.
6. AA to bear stamp duty and other fees: The cost of registration, stamp duty and other fees,
if any, for providing legal documents on land to the allottees shall be borne by the AA.
7. Payment of cost for initial cultivation of allotted land: The AA shall provide cost of
ploughing, seeds and fertilizers in the first year of cultivation of the allotted land. In the
second and third years, cost of cultivation must be loaned to such allottee of land by the AA
recoverable within next five years as single installment per annum free from any interest.
Provided that for land which requires development in order to become cultivable, the
assistance grant must continue until the development work is in progress. In all of these,
cash payment must be kept to the minimum. Service centers/ guilds must be established,
wherever possible.
8. Non-titled cultivators on forest lands: Forest dwellers, cultivating forest lands from any
date prior to 13th December 2005 (or as per the provisions of Scheduled Tribes and Other
Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, shall be considered as
owners of such land for purposes of compensation and allotment of land in lieu of their land.
9. Other encroachers: All encroachers of Government land for a period of five years or more
before the date of acquisition of land, who are otherwise landless or marginal farmers,
primarily dependent on cultivation for their livelihoods, shall be treated as owners of the land
for the purpose of R&R. They shall also be entitled to allotment of land in lieu of the
encroached land surrendered by them.
7.2.3 Employment Opportunities
1. At least one person from every project affected family will be given employment by the
project.
Explanation 1 - In the first place, all unskilled and semi-skilled direct employment in the
project must always go to a PAP with a mandatory preference, as long as any such positions
are available for employment. Those with appropriate qualifications must also be given first
priority for skilled positions. A priority list of eligible PAPs must be prepared and published
along with the criteria and procedure for selection and objections heard before these are
finalized by a State Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) set up for this purpose. The priority list
must begin with those who are most vulnerable - landless labourers and artisans who have
lost their livelihood. After that, landholders will be listed on a descending scale, with a lower
priority for those with larger holdings. In recruitment to regular jobs in the project preference
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shall be given to those losing their source of livelihood, residents of the zone, of the district
and of the state in that order. Many projects, including public sector units in the past, have
attempted to evade this responsibility by giving even many such on-going unskilled or
semiskilled tasks which could adequately be implemented by PAPs (eg., horticulture) to
contractors. This must not be permitted as long as there are any eligible PAPs.
Explanation 2 - A second problem frequently encountered is that PAPs are rejected because
they are said to lack the skills required. Since all such projects have long gestation periods,
therefore the SRA with the assistance of the state government must systematically ensure full
literacy as well as the creation of necessary skills to render the PAPs eligible for employment
for semi-skilled positions and for those with sufficient educational qualifications for skilled
positions. Even those private enterprises, which benefit from the project would be charged in
the same manner with responsibility for providing skills and jobs to such people. This
systematic skill development is primarily the responsibility of the AA.
2. For the above provision to be operationalised, from the conceptualization of the project
plan itself, the SRA must plan multi-dimensional literacy, educational and training
programmes and institutions for the people likely to be affected. The training must focus also
on developing such traditional occupations/ skills, which can be carried on and be useful in
the areas of resettlement. The entire objective would be to enable the PAPs to have
preferential access to the employment opportunities likely to be generated by the project. The
entire programme must be planned with high professionalism well in advance and must be
based on prior studies of the existing skills, experience, training, competence and aptitudes of
the people likely to be affected so that they can easily switch over or be absorbed in new
employment. Even after displacement and resettlement, there must be major efforts to run
training programmes to provide modern skills to the resettled people to ready them for their
new employment. This training programme is not meant merely for preparing for jobs or
services but also for self-employment.
3. Provision of casual and manual wage employment shall not be considered as an alternate
source of livelihood or employment in the case of affected persons. Moreover, all such
employment shall be co-operativised so as to instill a sense of dignity amongst the
participants. Accordingly, all possible tasks in the project will be assigned to cooperatives
or groups (even unregistered) of workers, which at present are being generally executed
through contractors and middlemen.
4. In all mining projects, preference in grant of lease etc.will be given to co-operative bodies
comprising (i) the Gram Sabhas of the likely zone of influence, (ii) persons owning mineral
bearing lands, (iii) workers and (iv) entrepreneurs providing capital and technical know how.
The share of the members of the concerned Gram Sabhas in these cooperatives shall not be
less than fifty percent.
5. The PIA in consultation with the SRA will also prepare a broad outline of a perspective
plan for reclamation of the mining areas, and for land use and development after the mining
operations are over. All such lands after development will belong to the community
comprising the concerned Gram Sabhas. The same must be assigned to the erstwhile land
owners or landless labourers, subject to the condition that the economic activity thereon will
be exclusively through personal labour of the assignee and his family and that the land shall
not be transferable except through inheritance. A detailed scheme on the above lines will be

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 prepared by the AA in consultation with the Gram Sabhas at least two years in advance of the
closure of a mine area or any part thereof.
7.2.4 One Time Grant
A one-time rehabilitation grant for loss of livelihood will be provided to every adult member
of the eligible displaced family, equivalent to 750 days of minimum wages admissible for
unskilled workers. This is provided to cover a gestation period of around three years to
enable the family to establish a new livelihood. This amount will be placed in a bank account
in fixed deposit in the joint name of male and female heads of household. The interest may
be freely used for consumption purposes but the capital can only used for purchase of
productive assets or in other ways connected with the establishment of secured livelihoods.
7.2.5 Homesteads
All displaced families from the rural as well as urban communities shall be provided with the
following benefits of R&R packages :
1. The rehabilitation package will include allotment of homestead land of the quantum
specified, as well as constructed dwelling of such standard and with such number of rooms as
has been specified separately for rural and urban households, as per stipulations provided
below. In addition, allotment of funds for construction of cattle-sheds, transportation cost for
shifting of building materials, persons, and their belongings including cattle is to be provided
by the PIA, by such number of trips as must be mutually decided by the SRA in consultation
with individual families. Those PAPs who are given the land for land option, but voluntarily
do not opt for land, will be eligible to opt for assistance available to displaced persons from
urban areas.
2. Allotment of homestead land in rural area: All displaced families from the rural area, shall
be settled in areas selected by the PAP from among a range of real choices (at least three),
including sites as close as possible to the place of displacement, as well as sites as close as
possible to new livelihoods such as the command area or new factory and the new township.
If such families are settled in the rural areas, they shall be allotted a homestead land, which
must not be less than the homestead land acquired, submerged or otherwise lost on account
of the project, subject to a minimum of 150 sq. ms.
3. Allotment of constructed houses and standard/ floor area thereof: In addition to allotment
of homestead land each family settled in a rural area shall be provided with a constructed
house of the standard prescribed under IAY with one living room for the nuclear family of
husband, wife and two minor children. but for every two additional adult members living in
such family one additional dwelling room of at least 3.5 m x 3.5 m floor area is to be added
to such a constructed house, subject to a maximum number of three additional rooms per
family. If the displaced families are willing to and capable of getting their houses
constructed, they are to be given financial assistance equivalent to the rate prescribed in IAY.
Based on the replacement value at the market rates for the house acquired, such families
may, however, on their own, construct additional rooms or make necessary extension of the
constructed houses out of the funds received as compensation as well as by using building
materials allowed to be transported at the cost provided by the AA.
4. Allotment of funds for construction of cattle-sheds: The AA shall provide necessary
financial assistance as may be required for the construction of cattle-sheds or poultry farms in

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 the place of their resettlement of the same size and standard as was owned by any displaced
family. The quantum of amount shall be decided for each individual family separately on the
basis of number of cattle or birds owned and transported to the new place of settlement.
5. Allotment of homestead land in urban area: For allotment of homestead in urban centres a
family must be allotted homestead land to the extent acquired and up to a minimum of 50 sq.
meters and a maximum of 150 sq. meters. However, the number of rooms to be constructed
for a single family or a joint family shall be determined on the basis of the total number of
adult members in the family. At least one living room for the nuclear family of husband,
wife and two minor children and for every two additional adult members living in such
family one additional dwelling room of at least 3.5 m x 3.5 m floor area must be added to
such a constructed house, subject to a maximum number of two additional rooms per family.
6. In case of no allotment of constructed houses in the rural areas: If the displaced family is
willing to construct their house, financial assistance given them should be equivalent to the
rate prescribed in the IAY or equivalent to the replacement value whichever is higher.
7. Independent plot for every adult of the family and preferably readymade constructed
houses should be avoided.
8. Allotment of homestead land to homeless families: No displaced family shall be left
shelterless in the area of their resettlement. A displaced family, which had a dwelling house
on unauthorized land, or a kuchha house on authorized land, or did not have either authorized
homestead land shall be provided 50 sq. mtrs in the urban area or 150 sq.mtrs in the rural
areas with a constructed dwelling house of such standard and with such number of rooms as
prescribed for resettlement of various sizes of displaced families to be resettled in the rural as
well as urban habitations.
9. Construction cost of new houses to be borne by PIA through the SRA: The construction
cost is to be borne by the PIA, in the form of a construction grant and it shall not be less than
the amount specified from time to time for construction of IAY houses, if such houses are
constructed in the rural areas. As far as possible, cash payment must be avoided, and
substituted by provision of materials/supplies through contracted sellers. For construction of
houses in the urban areas, the amount to be given as construction grant shall be 50 per cent
more than what is allocable for construction of houses in the rural areas in the same tehsil.
An option is to provide the replacement value of the house acquired.
10. Limitation to adjustment of the cost of construction of dwelling housing against
compensation awarded: The cost of construction of the dwelling houses shall not be adjusted
from the compensation payable to a BPL family.
7. 2.6 Self-employed Persons
1. For all self-employed persons in the project affected areas who can transfer their self-
employment to the new area, all the incentive schemes, subsidies, material and financial
assistance, on a priority basis, should be made available so as to enable them to resettle in the
new area. It is recognized here that some small agriculturists or landless workers are also
self-employed, therefore for purposes of this section, only those persons will be regarded as
self-employed who derive more than 66 per cent of their family income from this source.
Also in order to exclude large traders who would not require special consideration and
assistance, the assistance mentioned in this section would not be available to self-employed

64
 persons with a capitalised value of trade and business of 25 lakh rupees or more at 1998
prices. In the cases of self-employed persons who cannot or do not wish to transfer their self-
employment to the new area, they would be provided with opportunities for similar or
alternative self-employment in the new area with similar facilities in the form of incentives,
subsidies, material and financial assistance. Local agencies must be given additional grants
for various relevant schemes so that they do not have to eat into the rightful quota of the host
communities and conflict is avoided. If it is not possible to do so, they must be paid
compensation on the basis of the capitalised value of their trade or business. This will be
calculated by the SRA on the basis of a speaking order which would be appealable. They
must also be provided with jobs, as indicated below, subject to the willingness of the PAP.
7.2.7 Allotment of constructed shops or working sheds
All displaced families, including artisans, shop-keepers, small traders, etc. shall be provided
in addition to what is admissible to all the displaced families under this policy, all non-
agricultural necessary assistance to resume the traditional/ family trade, occupation, vocation
and productive activities in their new place of settlement. The allotment would be of a
constructed shop or working shed along with the land required for such construction to
resume trade. The allottee would also be given transport cost for shifting the goods,
materials, moveable properties to the place of resettlement. An artisan, like a potter,
blacksmith, carpenter, metal-worker, weaver, shoe-maker, etc. would also be given
constructed sheds along with necessary land for resuming his or her productive activities. In
case a shop owner has rented out his or her shop or run it through paid employees, an
equitable R&R Policy which centers around restoring livelihoods would give separate
allotments of shops in the new township to the former shop owner and tenant/ employee.
This will also be applicable to urban areas.
7.2.8 Interim financial assistance
In case of displacement preceding the allotment of constructed sheds and land, all resident
adult members of the family of displaced artisans, shop keepers, small traders etc. shall be
given a monthly subsistence allowance of not less than 25 days minimum wages for each
adult member of the family till the alternative sheds are constructed. The SRA is also
responsible for providing active assistance with regard to improvements in technology,
markets, access to credit and raw materials etc. Displacement of self-employed persons is
permitted only where an alternative sustainable source of livelihood is established at least
one year prior to the displacement.
7.2.9 Tribals
1. Tribals have borne a highly disproportionate burden of displacement in development
projects. Because of their especial vulnerability when uprooted from their traditional habitats
they have suffered more. Therefore, to the maximum extent possible large scale projects in
tribal areas must be reconsidered carefully as to whether they can be located elsewhere so as
to avoid or at least minimise tribal displacement. The first policy option should be an option
that would save tribals from displacement and not alienate them from their lands and
livelihood. The next preference should be a technology and project with minimum
displacement, which should be accepted even if the costs are greater and the benefits are less
than the greater displacement option.

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2. It is a common experience that displaced tribal communities are not able to settle and
strike roots in regions that are very different socio-culturally and with different resource
bases and social institutions from their original habitats. Hence, whenever a project displaces
such communities, they must preferably be resettled in a zone adjacent to the affected area,
similar to the socio-cultural, ecological, linguistic and economic characteristics of the
community. All tribal communities must be rehabilitated strictly in compliance with
international covenants in support of tribal rights like the Convention 107 of 1957 and the
Convention 169 of 1989 of the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007. These international covenants to
which the Indian Government is a signatory provide for full recognition of the special status
of tribals and the need for their total participation and consent in the conduct of development
projects which seek to displace them from their traditional habitats and livelihoods.
3. Efforts must be made to ensure that all tribal families of the ousted villages are resettled
together in a particular area, to the extent possible. The minimum unit for relocation must
be a hamlet or a clan. In no case must such tribal families be so segregated in providing
settlement with house-sites, that they lose the contact within their linguistic and ethnic
group, unless any family had expressed its willingness to such segregated rehabilitation. For
settlement of tribal families in a new locality, common property land for religious and
community gathering must be allotted free of cost.
4. Prior to the acquisition of land for any project in any tribal area, all land rights due but not
settled should be settled through a special drive ending before land acquisition commences.
An inquiry must be made by the competent revenue authorities in collaboration with reputed
voluntary organizations to determine whether any tribal lands have been transferred to non-
tribals in violation of the law on the subject. Urgent measures must be taken to cancel such
transfers and restore the right and title of the tribals on their alienated land, before acquisition
proceedings are started, so that the tribal families are not deprived of their legal rights and
benefits of allotment of fresh land.
5. Measures must also be taken to record the rights of tribals in land allotted to them. All
forest land under occupation of the tribal families before 13th December 2005 shall be
deemed for purposes of compensation and R&R to have been allotted or owned by the
concerned tribal families and while dispossessing from such land such families shall be
treated at par with land-owners with legal title (with joint ownership of husband and wife).
This will ensure that the compensation and rehabilitation package is made available also to
such tribals who occupied forest lands in the past, but were unable to secure legal rights.
6. The displaced tribal families shall also be compensated for loss of their customary
rights/usage on forest produce and fishing rights in case the new site does not provide for
such gathering of forest produce. Such compensation should be calculated as the minimum
wages which a tribal would have earned at the rates fixed by the respective State Government
during one single working season of 45 days for each year till forest and fishing resources are
not restored again. This will be in addition to normal packages like one-time rehabilitation
grant for loss of livelihood. This must, however, be treated only as an interim measure. PIA
and SRA must ensure that within alternate fuel, fodder and NTFP resources are developed
on non forest common lands to meet the needs of the relocated tribal community. The annual
compensation grant prescribed above for this purpose may be combined with funds under the
NREGS to undertake such reforestation and watershed development programmes.

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7.2.10 Persons Not Adequately Rehabilitated in Earlier Projects
In the majority of projects executed since Independence, resettlement and rehabilitation were
not done systematically to enable displaced and affected people to regain their livelihoods
and rebuild their lives. This has dispersed the displaced and affected people to a wider
geographical area, and empirical studies have established that the trauma of their destitution
has left them living in enhanced poverty and in several cases in stark destitution (Fernandes
and Thukral 1989). These disempowered people, pauperized by the development process
itself, must be provided even belatedly with rehabilitation benefits to enable them to regain
and if possible improve upon their existing livelihoods. This must be in the nature of a
national commitment.
1. The SRA will be responsible for tracing and enumeration of the people displaced and
affected by all projects since Independence within a particular state which have been
executed or are under execution prior to the coming into force of this policy. The SRA with
the assistance of reputed academic institutions and NGOs will undertake this exercise,
especially an assessment of their shelter and livelihood needs. It is recognized that especially
for older projects, the tracing of displaced persons can be a highly daunting task, but it must
be pursued with commitment and will to the extent feasible. The Central Government, on the
basis of such studies, would assist the State Governments through the SRAs to enable the
older PAPs to satisfy their needs, mainly through special allotments under existing
governmental programmes for provision of houseplots and title deeds, construction or repair
of house through IAY and a National Slum Development Programme. They should be
assisted also in acquiring employable skills and initiation of self-employment activities
through various schemes. The displaced women could be facilitated to enhance their income
earning potential through resources from special programmes and financial institutions. Such
assistance must be based on special additional allocations and should not be at the expense of
the share of the host community.
3. In those cases where, in the absence of a satisfactory alternative acceptable to the people or
the person concerned, they may have changed their habitation and established a new one on
their own; or a person after losing her or his resource base may have occupied a piece of land
and may be subsisting on the same through family labour, and not hired labourers, no
coercive process shall be instituted against the people under any law whatsoever. The new
habitation shall be deemed to have acquired the status of a regular residence after lapse of
five years irrespective of the status of the land - private, common, community or revenue, on
which it is situated. In case of private lands so encroached on the affected persons shall be
eligible for compensation as per the provisions of this policy. In the case of forest lands, the
provisions of the STOTFDA will be applied.
These provisions are very comprehensive and if sincerely implemented will ensure that
the burgeoning opposition to land acquisition that invariably surfaces these days will be tackled
in a just and equitable manner. In Scheduled Areas the impelementation of these provisions will
involve the active participation of the Gram Sabha in accordance with PESA. Even though in the
immediate perspective it would lead to an enhancement of project costs in the long run it would
ensure inclusive development by providing alternative sustainable livelihood opportunities to
displaced people who are mostly tribals with little or no skills for negotiating the modern
economy.

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7.3 National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) being implemented under
the NREGA has made a considerable positive impact on the livelihoods of deprived villagers in
Chattisgarh. For instance, this scheme has benefited the tribal residents of Kanchanpur village in
Korea district of Chhattisgarh to a great extent. Evident are the instances of these villagers being
regularly employed and as such their worries over hunting for jobs elsewhere have been literally
erased. Now they don't have to venture out for their daily bread anymore. They are harnessing
their productive potential to the hilt and are getting at least hundred days of employment, the
output of which is dedicated to the overall rural development of their very own region. Under
this scheme many other villagers in Korea district are being ensured of employment in various
categories like land development, rural connectivity, water conservation and water harvesting
among others (Topnews 2009).
Throughout the several focus group discussions conducted as part of this study the impact
of NREGS was also discussed. Even though the ideal situation described above does not prevail
uniformly throughout the state the big farmers did complaing that due to the NREGS the
agricultural wage has gone up and it is difficult to find labour for farm work. Small and marginal
farmers and landless labourers said they have got a fair amount of extra employment which has
provided them with an alternative to working on the land of big farmers or making bidis. This
has led to the increase in farm wages from around Rs. 30 per day earlier to about Rs. 60 per day
but they are still less than the Rs. 90 per day that is given in the NREGS. However, the problem
is that the payment under NREGS is invariably delayed by anything from a month to two
months. The mass organisation Jurmil Morcha which is active in Ambagarh Chowki Block of
Rajnandgaon district in fact has had to organise several sit in demonstrations at the Block Office
to get the payments disbursed for work done under the scheme.
Moreover, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on the
performance of the state in NREGA indicates that even though it was given an award for good
implementation of NREGS in two districts overall it could ensure only 35 days of employment
to those who applied and the works too were of sub-standard quality (Kaiser 2009). Thus there is
still a need to operationalise NREGS properly in all the rural areas of the state and especially the
tribal areas. The main hurdles that have been pinpointed in a study (Ambastha, Vijashankar and
Shah 2008) are as follows -
a) the lack of enough qualified sub engineers and other support staff to evaluate the works
on time and so ensure timely payment of wages.
b) The apathy of the administration towards using social audits by the people of the Gram
Sabhas instead of engineer valuations for evaluating the work done.
c) The inadequacy of the rural banking infrastructure to handle the huge increased load of
payments that have to be made resulting in further delays.
d) the lack of trained staff who can assist in preparing natural resource management and
development plans which can contribute to a sustainable increase in productivity of
agriculture, poultry, fishery, livestock and NTFP collection.
e) the inability to develop a workable Management Information System that can function as
both a provider of information and monitoring tool for planning purposes.
Once these hurdles are overcome then a combination of PESA and NREGS can easily
ensure just and sustainable development in Scheduled Areas.

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8. Conclusions
The legal and policy framework for ensuring that tribals in Chhattisgarh can lead
dignified lives in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution is fairly strong. However,
the problem is in the implementation of these laws and policies. This is basically due to the
nature of modern development which has been predicated on the displacement and alienation of
tribals beginning with the European conquest of the Americas in the fifteenth century (Turner
and Butzer 1992). Whether it is in the management of forests, water resources, mineral
resources, industry or agriculture the interests of small holder and landless tribal farmers and
artisans is not taken into consideration. Neither are steps taken to re-train the displaced tribals to
enable them to be absorbed effectively in the new projects that come up on the lands from which
they have been displaced. The provision of proper compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement
and also compliance with environmental standards all add to the project establishment and
operation costs which cut into the profits of the project. Thus, whether it is public sector units or
private ones there is a tendency towards cheating the tribals. The government too goes along
with the project authorities and wilfully ignores the constitutional provisions and those of PESA
and other beneficial laws and policies. Chhattisgarh being rich in natural resources, the incidence
of displacement and devastation of tribals has been very high. Moreover, the government has
failed to deliver properly even the basic economic and social services and it has also failed to
prevent the exploitation of tribals by moneylenders, traders and lower level government staff.
This history of injustice to the tribals after independence has naturally made them wary of
government interventions and given the huge shortage of land and alternative livelihoods and the
sorry state of government services at present there is tremendous disaffection among them. This
is the context in which the Maoist movement has struck deep roots within tribal communities in
the state which has led to a civil war situation. The Maoists ensure swift justice against local
exploiters and also prevent displacement due to development projects. Since the Scheduled
Areas in Chhattisgarh are so rich in natural resources the government cannot possibly allow the
Maoists to continue their rebellion and this has led to heightened conflict. Apart from the state
security forces, tribals have been pitted against tribals through the Salwa Judum in this conflict,
completely devastating their traditional livelihoods and culture.
The picture that emerges from this study is a very discouraging one. PESA and its allied
laws and regulations are being violated at will in the Scheduled Areas of Chhattisgarh in pursuit
of industrial development and the elimination of Maoism. The few NGOs and CSOs that are
trying to build a movement of the tribals for the implementation of PESA are severely
handicapped by the atmosphere of fear and repression that prevails due to the ongoing civil war
and the thrust for industrial development. The judiciary too right from the lowest to the highest
level does not support human and tribal rights in the way it should as it too are influenced by the
fear of the spread of Maoism and the belief that industrial development is the only solution to
socio-economic ills. The Central and State Governments are wary of discussing the alienation
suffered by the tribals due to unjust development policies.
Nevertheless this study concludes on a hopeful note by listing a set of remedial measures
that can be taken to ensure the implementation of PESA and allied laws and regulations because
that is the only sustainable development path for the future. In Chhattisgarh more than anywhere
else grassroots tribal democracy is at a crossroads between forces pulling in opposite directions.
Given the strong legal and policy framework that is in place it is possible to ensure justice for the
tribals with pro-active implementation by the State coupled with inputs from NGOs and CSOs.
69
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10. Glossary and Abbreviations
The abbreviations used more often in the text and some terms whose meanings and
purpose require some explanation are given in the table below

Abbreviation/ Term Full form / Explanation

AA Acquiring Agency which acquires land for a development
project
Central Place An analytical procedure in geography for studying the
Hierarchisation development of centralisation due to development projects used
to determing environmental impact of projects
CfE Consent for Establishment of a project given by the envrionment
regulator after environmental impact assessment
CfO Consent for Operation of a project given by the environment
regulator when it has already been established
CGECB Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board
CMM Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha which is a mass organisation of the
toiling people of Chhattisgarh
CSO Civil Society Organisation
Ecological Footprint This is the area that is required to sustainably provide natural
resources for and absorb pollutants from a development project
EIA Environment Impact Assessment that is carried out before
environmental clearance is granted by the environment regulator
to a project
EIAA Environment Impact Assessment Authority which is the
environment regulator for development projects
EPA The Environment Protection Act 1986
Fifth Schedule A schedule of the Indian Constitution which makes provisions
for the special governance of tribal areas in India in accordance
with tribal specificities
Gram Panchayat The village local government elected by the members of the
Gram Sabha
Gram Sabha The village general body which in tribal areas may be as small
as a hamlet
Gravity Modeling An analytical procedure in geography for studying the flow of
population and resources into development centres used for
determining the environmental impact of development projects
Malguzars, Zamindars Land revenue collection agents appointed by the British who
effectively became the landlords
MLA Member of Legislative Assembly who is an elected state level
law maker
MoEF Ministry of Environment and Forests of Government of India
MoU Memorandum of Understanding
NGO Non-Government Organisation

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Abbreviation/ Term Full form / Explanation
NMDC National Mineral Development Corporation which is engaged in
the mining of iron-ore in Chhattisgarh
NREGA The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 which
assures 100 days of employment in a year to rural people
NREGS The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which is the
scheme through which NREGA is implemented
NTFP Non-Timber Forest Produce
PAP Project Affected Person
PESA The Panchayat Extension (Extension To The Scheduled Areas)
Act 1996 which has been enacted to ensure grassroots
democracy in tribal areas in accordance with tribal specificities
PIA Project Implementation Agency which establishes a
development project
R&R Rehabilitation and Resettlement of persons affected by
displacement due to development projects
Scheduled Area An area notified by the State Government as being eligible for
special governance for tribals under the provisions of the Fifth
Schedule of the Constitution
SRA State Rehabilitation Authority proposed to be established to
oversee the rehabilitation of project affected persons
STOTFDA Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers
(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 which provides for land
titles to be given to tribals and forest dwellers who have been
traditionally cultivating forest land.
WLS Wildlife Sanctuaries set up for the conservation of wild life
under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972

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