Mumbai: Antaram Awase is a third-generation resident of Siwal, in Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur district. His grandparents, belonging to the Barela tribal community, moved to the forest region in the 1970s like many others from the Barela, Bhilala, and Bhil communities. They have since made the dense and rich Sagon forest region their home. However, forest rights elude communities that have lived in the region for over 50 years. And worse, the forest and local administrations, Awase says, have cracked down on the villagers, filing multiple cases citing encroachment and deliberate disobedience of government orders. The most recent in the list of atrocities perpetrated against them, the villagers say, is an externment order against the human rights defenders who have been actively questioning the state in the region.Even though a large part of the Burhanpur district is earmarked as a scheduled area, the tribal communities living there have for long been bereft of forest rights. Villagers of Siwal, along with residents of 15 other villages in the district, have been demanding they be recognised as forest dwellers and their rights under the Forest Rights Act be protected. In 2018, this fight demanding legitimate rights intensified. So did the state’s crackdown.Also read: Forest Rights Act: Over 1.6M Families Face Threat of Eviction From Forest LandAlleged violence against villagersNitin, one of the activists associated with the Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sanghathan recalls incidents when pellet bullets were fired at villagers when they protested against their eviction. At least four persons were injured in the firing. “Most residents have lived here for several decades, even before the FRA law came into being. They have been tilling the land here and living off the forest produce. As they began asserting their rights, the forest officials used force,” Nitin says. This firing incident led to complaints and counter-complaints. While the forest department filed a case against the tribal villagers, accusing them of obstructing them in their duty, the villagers complained of excessive force used against them. This complaint led to the transfer of at least two forest officials.But that didn’t go well with the forest department, Awase says. “I have lost count of the number of cases that the forest and state police have registered against me and other villagers who have been at the forefront of the protests,” Awase says. These cases accuse him of a number of things – from ‘attempt to murder’ to ‘unlawful assembly’.Since 2019, there have been multiple instances of human rights violations in the region. Between August and September 2020, several persons from the region – all belonging to the Adivasi community – were picked up under alleged false charges, detained by the forest officials and allegedly tortured. In one such incident, two Adivasi youths were handcuffed to a window railing and allegedly beaten up all night, before they were produced in court.Those booked in multiple cases mostly work as farmers or farm labourers. Appearance before court means missing out on a day’s earnings. “As it is we have been spending a great deal of time organising and agitating against the state’s unjust attitude towards us. And now we have an additional challenge of appearing before the court every other week,” said an activist, who too has been booked in multiple cases. Also read: Tribal Panel Invokes Special Powers to Evaluate States’ Implementation of Forest Rights Act‘Tree felling’The villagers’ demand as lawful claimants of the forest land gets complex with the government’s allegation of felling of trees. The region over the past decade has witnessed deforestation on a massive scale. Awase says that he along with other members of the organisation, had moved to notify both the forest and the district administration about the large-scale destruction of the forest cover. “These are all Sagon trees. They sell for crores of rupees. As some people from nearby villages indulged in the criminal act of destroying the forest cover, we wrote to the officials. No action was taken against those involved,” Awase alleges. Those allegedly involved in the felling of trees also belong to the tribal community, activists say. This, Nitin explains, is a parallel phenomenon seen in the region where many from the Adivasi communities make a desperate attempt to claim stakes on the land. “If the state were serious about implementing the FRA law in the region, destruction of forest cover could have brought under control,” he adds.Since October 2022, JADS alleges that the region has lost over 15,000 acres of forest cover. This, JADS alleges, would not have been possible without the connivance of the forest and other state bodies.A protest and its aftermathIn April, over a thousand women and men – all belonging to tribal communities – staged a three-day protest against the tacit support given to widespread and illegal tree felling by the Madhya Pradesh government, emphasising that felling at such a scale is impossible without the implicit support of the state government itself. The April 2023 protest by Burhanpur’s tribal villagers. Photo: By arrangement.While the officials didn’t relent to the villagers’ demands at all, JADS accuses the forest and state administration of illegally evicting many eligible FRA claimants. The district has over 10,000 FRA claims pending, some even belonging to those illegally evicted, the villagers allege. Every act of protest, the organisation claims, is met with state repression, they stress.Among the most recent state actions was the externment of Madhuri Krishnaswami of the JADS. Krishnaswami, who has been actively involved in organising the community and agitations in the district, has been booked in as many as 21 forest offence cases for alleged offences between October 2022 and January 2023. It is these cases that the protests were against. However, Krishnaswami’s name was added only in May, after the protests. Krishnaswami is additionally named in five police cases out of which two have been disposed of already and others are pending investigation. These cases, mostly accusing her of unlawful assembly, have triggered her externment from the district. Rights activists from the region call this part of the administration’s tactic to break the movement. “They are going after the leaders one by one. Many Adivasi women, who are at the forefront, are also getting targeted by forest officials. Like the Britishers, the Madhya Pradesh government too is hellbent on criminalising the community for fighting for their rights,” Awase said.