Defining Rights and Privileges in Forest : Issues in the Past and the Present

This paper attempts to trace the historical debate regarding the issues of 'rights' and 'privileges' in the evolution of forest policy in India, starting from the mid nineteenth century. The exploitation of the Indian forests by the British for infrastructure development in India and England required that they controlled the forests resources. Such a control would not be possible without properly laid down rules and procedures and eventually a stringent forest policy. In the process of the evolution of forest policy in India over seven to eight decades (mid nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century), the British rulers with the help of able forest experts created a system where in access to forest resources was strictly regulated for local forest dependent communities. Forests were classified and accordingly peoples’ access to forest resources defined. There were protests from local forest dependent communities and in this context, the British rulers introduced/defined the concepts of 'rights' and 'privileges' in the forests. This paper further goes on to discuss how the concepts of ‘rights’ and ‘privileges’ in the forests were used by the British forest officials to regulate entry of forest dependent people. A recent case study in Karnataka conducted during 2004-2005 suggests that nothing much has changed as far as ‘rights’ and ‘privileges’ in the forests are concerned. Post independence, though in the initial years, the government was opposed to increased access to forest resources for forest dependent communities, protests, pro-people debates, led the government to ease norms regarding access to forests. Despite the forest policies in India tilting towards people through programmes like joint forest management, the situation regarding 'rights' and 'privileges' remains almost unchanged. We make an attempt to compare the historical situation of the 'rights' and 'privileges' issues with the recent case study of a Village Forest Committee