Forest rights claimants ask where to find proof spanning three generations

Non-tribal, or Other Traditional Forest Dwellers, who have lived in the forest for years in the Gondpipri area, are now facing a major difficulty in gathering old documents to prove their forest rights claims. Claimants are asking directly where they are supposed to find proof that goes back seventy five years.

Many families do not have voter lists, ration cards, house tax receipts, revenue records, gram panchayat documents or other such old papers from their ancestors' time. There is a demand that eligible claimants' forest rights claims should not be held up simply because old documents are not available.

Claimants say the administration should give clear answers to certain questions. What form of proof is actually accepted as evidence of three generations of residence. If old documents are not available, what other evidence will be accepted instead. On what conditions will the gram sabha and the concerned committees examine the claims. There is a demand for clarity from the administration on these questions.

There is also hope that forest rights claimants will get proper guidance at the village level to gather evidence, and that whatever different kinds of evidence are available under the rules will be considered.

On this issue, there is a demand that Chandrapur MP Pratibha Dhanorkar, Gadchiroli-Chimur MP Dr Namdeo Kirsan and the concerned MLAs of the district raise this question forcefully before the central and state governments. Claimants demand that the MPs raise this question in the Lok Sabha and the MLAs raise the issue in the state assembly.

Claimants have also demanded that the government release official, taluka-wise data on how many non-tribal forest rights claims have been filed in Chandrapur district, how many have been approved, how many have been rejected and how many are still pending.

Meanwhile, senior social activist Sudhakarrao Wankhede is preparing an agitation to draw the government's attention to this issue. The agitation is being built around demands for clarity on evidence for forest rights claims, proper guidance for eligible claimants and a transparent examination process. The demand is that the government bring immediate clarity so that families dependent on the forest for generations are not denied forest rights merely because they lack old documents.