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Tribals defy law, sell minor forest produce
MORE THAN five thousand tribals assembled at Piparia town today and sold minor forest produce in defiance of laws prohibiting collection and sale of minor forest produce from 75 villages under Satpura tiger reserves.
MORE THAN five thousand tribals assembled at Piparia town today and sold minor forest produce in defiance of laws prohibiting collection and sale of minor forest produce from 75 villages under Satpura tiger reserves.
Hundreds of tribals had started ‘Jungle Bachao, Adivasi Bachao’ Yatra from Khandwa but when the Yatra reached Bori on February 2, it was stopped by the administration as visit of outsiders at 75 villages in question is prohibited without permission of the administration.
The tribals, who disbursed then, however, assembled at the pre-destined culmination point of the Yatra – Piparia- today and sold minor forest produce in defiance of laws but police and administration restrained from taking any action to stop it.
Kisan Adivasi Sangthan and Samajwadi Jan Parishad, who had called for the Yatra, said that twin objectives of the Yatra were to assert rights of tribals over their livelihood in forests and to oppose the provisions of Tribals Rights Bill, which is anti-tribal in its present form and needed radical amendments, said spokesperson for the two NGOs- Anurag Modi.
