ORISSA’S tribal population has never tasted the fruits of development in any form. The state government’s attitude, at best, has been one of benign neglect. Over the years, however, things have got worse for them, whether because of their livelihoods being taken away, in the name of mining in Khandadhar, or in the communal violence that was unleashed against them in Kandhamal district late last year.
Perhaps, the state government is at a loss over how to live up to its responsibility towards these most backward communities, who still struggle to have two square meals in a day, or the tribals are unable to articulate their concerns and therefore go unheard, as happened in Kandhamal and Kalinganagar (where 14 people protesting the acquisition of their land for bauxite mining were shot dead by police on New Year’s day in 2006). Probably the same may be repeated in the case of Khandadhar.
In the case of Kandhamal, even the initial response of the judicial commission to go into the violence shows that it is the replication of an age-old caste conflict; suppressed and never discussed. Anthropologists in Orissa agree that there has been rivalry between the Kandhas (tribals) and the Panas (Scheduled Caste) in the district since the time of British rule in India. It was so acute that the government had to set up separate schools for the communities. The result was the establishment of 42 and 46 schools in 1936-37 and 1941-42, respectively, meant only for ST students.
Today’s government, however, seems uninterested in going to the root of the problem and finding a solution.
It is creating an environment of indiscriminate arrests and midnight raids, forcing tribals to flee into the forests. One of the consequences is that these tribals are finding it extremely hard to make a living.
To make matters worse, the government is yet to act against people who used fake tribal certificates to grab tribal land or to get elected to posts meant for tribals. Its recent attempt to identify the forgeries can be settled if and only if the officials concerned take note of the indicators suggested by anthropologists.
The prominent parameters suggested are to identify Kutia Kandhas through tutelary deity, kinship network, lineal settlement pattern with their deity Dharani and Surya, myth and legends, traditional festival and genealogy to establish the kinship network. Government officials have been advised to consider these indicators before reaching a conclusion on the issue, which otherwise would be almost impossible to resolve.
The story of exploitation does not end here. Before the tribals of Kandhamal could recover from their trauma, the government took another anti-tribal decision when it proposed the leasing out of the Khandadhar range to a company for the mining of iron ore. The significance of the Khandadhar is that it is dominated by the Paudi-Bhuyan, a primitive tribal group living off nature’s generosity.
They depend mostly on the hill areas for their livelihood. Apart from anything else, Khandadhar is one of the state’s most beautiful areas, thickly forested, with a profusion of waterfalls.
They are not only great tourist attractions but also a vital source of i r rigation for seven gram panchayats in the particular district.
Further, Khandadhar has assets like fruit bearing trees, including mango, jackfruit, guava, charo, and kendu and mohua and large areas covered by sal and teak, not to speak of medicinal plants.
The inhabitants collect fruits and other forest products and sell them in the nearby market for subsistence.
Khandadhar is also a home for wild animals and many rare species. The famous lichu is produced around the Khandadhar River.
Once mining begins, these precious natural assets will vanish rapidly.
The waterfalls will be wiped out forever from the tourist map as large areas of forest will be stripped to get at the ore. The evidence for ecological destruction as a result of mining is overwhelming. If mining begins, the day is also not far off when the Khandadhar River will dry up and drought strikes its catchment area.
And the people worst affected by such a calamity will be the tribals.
On one hand, the Government of India talks about special measures for the security and rehabilitation of primitive tribal groups, but at the same time it permits their destruction by taking away their means of sustenance by leasing out the tribal areas for mining and other purposes.
The government needs to re-examine the likely impact of mining on the inhabitants of Khandadhar before taking a final decision if it is serious about tribal development.
It is a shame that neither the Centre nor the state government has taken any meaningful steps to improve living standards in the tribaldominated areas. Each measure taken has only served to drive them further into a corner, even though there has been much pious talk about tribal empowerment since Independence.
Not once has the rhetoric been translated into action. It is high time the government reconsidered its approach to one of the country’s most marginalised communities.