The 5th and 6th schedules to the Constitution of India provide for stringent protection of land belonging to the tribal peoples. In addition, at State level, there is a plethora of laws prohibiting the sale or transfer of tribal land to non-tribals.
The root cause of the land alienation has been the land Acquisition Act of 1894 under which the Government can exercise its sovereign power to take away any land in the name of public purposes.
Alienation of tribal land takes place in two ways. The first type of land alienation pertains to alienation of land to non-tribals which has been a major form of transfer of land from tribals. The State is required to play pro-active role in monitoring the restoration of land to the tribals from the non-tribals. The State Government framed various protective laws and the results have been varied.
While Andhra Pradesh has a land Regulation Act (land Transfer Regulation Act, 1959) (later amended in 1970), even such legislation has not quite ensured that the pending cases (where land has to be restored to the tribals) were settled expeditiously.
Another type of land alienation is the State induced tribal land alienation. In the name of economic development through industrialisation, the State has often been alienating tribal lands to provide to industries and mines, hydro-electric schemes, tourism projects and even to schools. Research studies, NGOs and local tribal campaigns have outlined the evidence that these projects have hardly resulted in economic, social or political empowerment or progress of the tribal communities affected by such projects. There are several complex issues which need to be resolved.
On November 12, 2010, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs informed the lok Sabha (lower House of Parliament) that, as of July, 2010, a total of 4, 77,000 cases of tribal land alienation had been registered covering 8,10,000 acres of lands of which 3,78,000 cases covering 7,86,000 acres had been decided by court. Of them, 2,09,000 cases had been decided in favour of tribals covering a total area of 4, 06,000 acres. This means that 1, 69,000 cases had been decided against the tribals.
According to the 2004-2005 Annual Report of Ministry of Rural Development of the Government of India, 3,75,164 cases of tribal land alienation have been registered covering 85,52,82 acres of land in 10 States. Out of these, only 1,62,650 cases had been disposed of in favour of tribals covering a total area of 4,47,314 acres while 1,54,993 cases covering an area of 3,63,493 acres of land had been decided against the tribals by the courts on various grounds.
In Odisha, the tribals are the worst sufferers over the land question. Their communities did not have a tradition of being landless labourers. The existence of this category among them at present is a sign of land alienation. This process of land alienation has gained momentum over the years through different patterns and sources.
The dynamics of the process of dispossession involves an intricate interplay of social, cultural, economic and political forces. The fundamental reason for tribal land alienation is the fragile, constantly shrinking economic base of the tribals. Their non-monetised self-sufficient economy crumbled and the tribals became exposed to barter or cash transactions for the fulfillment of their basic needs. Their traditional skills lay in the gathering of forest produce. With the introduction of State ownership of forests, however, from owner gatherers, the tribals were reduced to wage earners or encroachers. It must be admitted that alienation of land from tribals has also occurred significantly directly as a result of the developmental policies of the Government. Due to development projects, thousands of rural poor tribals, with relatively little political and economic power, have been displaced from their important sources of livelihood as well as the means of preserving their cultural identity, that is, land. These development projects involve the displacement of tribals who are called upon to sacrifice for the greater interest of the nation. In the case of India’s development model, displacement caused by large projects has actually resulted in a transfer of resources from the weaker sections of the society to more privileged ones in Odisha. In other words, the tribal communities are forced to bear the massive brunt of development. The development programmes can also reduce access to land by the tribals.
The dynamics of land alienation is also possible through the State assented tribal land alienation. The colonial State, both directly or indirectly, not only condoned but permitted, if not abetted, the practice. In the post-independence period, tribals have also lost their land rights through survey and settlement operations undertaken during the transition from intermediary system to individual based settlement. land dispossession occurred on a massive scale owing to the lack of proper and regular survey and settlement practices. Those due to different reasons and through different processes mentioned above, a huge amount of land has been alienated from the tribals in Odisha.
Statistical figures of the Planning Commission indicate that more than 40 per cent of the displaced families due to developmental projects in Odisha are tribals and they lost control over their source of livelihood. The hydro-electric project taken up in 1954 at Machhkund, Koraput district, displaced quite a large number of tribals (51 per cent of the displaced families are tribals). The Balimela Hydro-Project in Malkangiri district affected 1,113 tribal families. At present, Koraput district has 18 large schemes occupying 50,000 acres of land (or 7.42 per cent of the total area) depriving 10 per cent of the tribals of their livelihood. Data sheet on tribals reveals that a total of 8,41,916.50 acres of tribal land was alienated in Odisha by the end of December, 1999, with the highest in Koraput district (28,901.55 acres), followed by Kandhamal district (15,864.55 acres).
Sources also reflect the picture that hundreds of acres of tribal land in south Odisha have been sold illegally over the last one decade with the open collusion of Government officials. The tribals are being cheated and alienated from their land in the southern Odisha district of Rayagada mostly through Benami (illegal) transaction.