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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Gujjars protest against forest officials

Dehradun, December 15
Gujjars residing in the forest areas of the Rajaji National Park today gathered at the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra to protest against the Forest Department officials.
Kulwa, a gujjar residing in the forest area between Haridwar and Dehradun, had first raised the banner of revolt against the British rule in 1824. But the ancestors of Kulwa are being prevented from leading a life of dignity and honour in the forests that are part of the Rajaji National Park.
The nomadic forest dwellers living in the forests for centuries are at the receiving end of the high-handed attitude of the forest officials. “They have taken away our rights and want to drive us out of the forest. For past two months, the forest officials have restricted our movement. They are preventing us form entering the forests and even services of ambulance and doctors are being denied,” charged Noor Jamal, a gujjar, while narrating his plight at a press conference.
The nomads who have also been denied the Scheduled Tribe status in the state have often been in conflict with the forest authorities. “Our forest rights, as envisaged in the Forest Dwellers Act (2006), have been jeopardised due to the attitude of the forest officials. They illegally charge fees when we begin our migratory trip to the mountains,” charged Jamal.
“We have given 20 days to the government to restore our forest rights otherwise some of the rehabilitated gujjars would swarm the Rajaji National Park area,” said Irshad.
At the heart of the gujjar problems is the rehabilitation exercise gone sour. “While the government rehabilitated 512 gujjar families in Pathri, they have not been given lease of the land. The gujjars of Gaindi Katha, 710 in number, have not been given houses. A total of 72 families who have to be rehabilitated have not been given plots,” said Avdhesh Kaushal, chairperson of the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), an NGO that has set up the Milk federation with the gujjars. 

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