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Jungle Law

In recent times, forest staff are increasingly facing hostile elements, poachers and lawbreakers, who are committing forest offences with impunity. Officers and staff are being brutally assaulted while performing their duties. The Supreme Court has now stepped in.

The Supreme Court recently issued notice to the centre on a plea seeking protection of forest staff. The petition said that the forest staff are increasingly facing hostile anti-social elements while discharging their duties and get slapped with the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1998, when they act in self-defence. 

The division bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath directed the Central Empowered Committee to look into the matter and submit a comprehensive report, giving suggestions for preventing occurrences of unfortunate incidents wherein forest officers are attacked while discharging their duties.

The bench was hearing an application filed by Senior Advocate and amicus curiae ADN Rao, who informed the Court about the brutal murder of a Forest Range Officer, Challamalla Srinivas Rao in Telangana. The petition said that in global terms, the work undertaken by the forest department help in mitigating global warming, carbon sequestration and reducing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In recent times, forest staff/officials are increasingly facing hostile elements and lawbreakers, who are committing forest offences with impunity and the officers and staff are being brutally assaulted while performing their duties.

The petition further said that there have been several instances recently wherein forest officers and the staff of the forest department faced violent attacks from encroachers/anti-social elements and poachers. Since the attack takes place deep inside the forest, they are outnumbered and find it difficult to defend themselves or call for help. In case, they take action in self-defence, they are booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1998. It was stated that after the new law for granting forest rights to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers, who can prove occupancy as in 2005, was enacted, attacks on forest officers and forest staff have increased. This is leading to lawlessness within forests.

The application filed through Advocate Siddharth Chowdhury sought an urgent direction to the concerned authorities to provide protection to the officials while they are on duty. The senior counsel also sought strict action against the offenders and direction to the concerned states to provide full administrative backing, including the support of police force, in dealing with and preventing serious forest offences which are resulting in the large-scale destruction of forests.

Challamalla Srinivas Rao was killed in a violent attack allegedly carried out by Guthikoya tribe at the Errabodu plantation region of Bendalapadu gram panchayat in Chandrugonda Mandal on November 22. According to officials, Rao was attacked near a plantation area of the forest in Chandrugonda revenue block when he, along with another forest official, went there to stop damages being caused to the plantation by some people. He was attacked by the tribals with sharp-edged weapons and eventually succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Khammam. 

His death was followed by anger and refusal to conduct the ongoing land survey by Telangana forest rangers association and Telangana junior forest officers association. Massive rallies were formed in Khammam and Kothagudem districts in support of their demand to provide weapons to foresters for the protection of forests as well as their own safety.

Expressing deepest condolences to the family of the deceased officer, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 50 lakh, besides a government job to an eligible family member. KCR clarified that the government will not tolerate attacks on any forest employee discharging his duties. He ordered the Director General of Police, M Mahender Reddy, to take action and ensure that culprits are punished stringently. 

The killing came amid growing clashes between forest officials and tribals who claim rights over “podu” land under cultivation by tribals and other forest-dwellers. The tribals claim that plantation on “podu” land violate their rights, as guaranteed under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

Last year, the state government had embarked on a new exercise to address the long-pending issue. It launched a survey of “podu” land and received applications from eligible beneficiaries claiming rights on “podu” land. According to the Adivasi Joint Action Committee, adivasis cultivating “podu” land for decades are being driven out by the forest department. The forest officials, however, argued that they are taking up plantation on forest land. According to them, the Forest Rights Act applies only to those land which were under cultivation before December 2005.

The government of India enacted the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in order to prevent atrocities against them and help in the social inclusion of the Dalits into the society. The legislation aims at preventing the commission of offences by persons other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Any person who is not a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe and commits an offence listed in the Act against a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe is an offender. Moreover, all offences listed in the Act are cognizable and the police can arrest the offender without a warrant and start an investigation into the case without taking any orders from the court. 

The Act prescribes both minimum as well as maximum punishments. The minimum in most cases is six months’ imprisonment while the maximum is five years’ sentence with a fine. In some cases, the minimum imprisonment is enhanced to one year while the maximum goes up to life imprisonment, or even death sentence.

In 2019, after a woman forest officer (C Anitha) was attacked by a mob, allegedly led by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader in Telangana’s Komaram Bheem Asifabad district, the police booked a case against her and 15 of her colleagues under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. A case was filed at Easgaon police station based on a complaint by M Saroja, a tribal, who claimed that she was abused and harassed by Anitha and her colleagues from the forest department, who had taking their “caste” name. Anitha and other forest officials were assaulted by a mob led by former zilla parishad vice-chairman Konneru Krishna Rao.

In her complaint, Saroja also claimed that her family owned the land on which the forest officials were trying to plant saplings as part of an afforestation programme. 

Reportedly, Anitha along with her staff had gone to Sarsala forest village with tractors to plough 20-acre land for “Haritha Haaram”, a mass tree plantation programme. This was a mandatory afforestation programme to compensate for the loss of forest land due to the government’s flagship Kaleshwaram multipurpose irrigation project. 

—By Adarsh Kumar and India Legal Bureau

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