ABSTRACT
An estimated 1.64 lakh hectares of forest land has already been diverted for mining in the country. The truth is that over the past century, millions of tribals, who grew up and live in these forests, find themselves dispossessed of their forest land and its produce. The three tribal-dominated states of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are the most productive mineral-bearing states in the country. The tribals, who are the ‘original’ inhabitants, don’t own much of these rich forests. Three-fourths of the scheduled lands are owned by the state governments with almost half of them declared as forest lands. Most of the tribals ended up working on their own forestlands, in some cases, as bonded labour. Simultaneously, mines have sprung up on their forest lands, earning thousands of crores every year for everyone else but them. In fact, the forests have fed India’s growth story.
