The Making of Andhra's Forest Underclass: An Historical Institutional Analysis of Forest Rights Deprivations
This paper considers the relationship between the historical emergence of colonial forestry institutions in forest areas of Andhra Pradesh and the chronic poverty of people living there.
Between 5-15 million of Andhra's population live in forested landscapes depending on definitions, and most of these live in severely deprived conditions and form what may reasonably be called a 'forest underclass'. By underclass we mean to signify that peoples living in forests landscapes have been collectively subjugated and impoverished, and that forestry institutions are one of the primary causes. It may be argued that forest peoples inherently live at low income levels and that their poverty is latent. However using a Historical Institutional analytical framework we show that regardless their initial conditions, their livelihoods have been gravely impacted by the expropriation of productive assets (specifically private and collective land) and severe restrictions on livelihood related access and use rights in forest areas.
We examine the processes of rights deprivations, applying concepts of critical junctures when institutional change occurred, and 'path dependency' when the consequences of institutional reforms gradually and cumulatively unfolded. The paper examines in detail somewhat arcane aspects of the processes through which the state 'territorialisation' of forest hinterlands occurred in AP, at the expense of the predominantly tribal populations already resident there.
Key deprivations identified are:
1. Extinguishment of hereditary customary tenures through the 'normal' forest settlement
2. Irregularities in the settlement process
3. Criminalisation of shifting cultivation
4. Unjust evictions
5. Illegal land grabbing
6. Recent in-migration of tribal groups from other states not scheduled in AP
7. Displacement for 'Development' initiatives
8. Evictions through Joint / 'Community' Forest Management schemes
9. Non recognition of tenures due to Revenue and forest department boundary disputes
10. Marginalisation through creation of Sanctuaries and National Parks
Poverty caused by these rights deprivations have shown a high degree of continuity due to the persistence of the institutional arrangements on which they are based, created under a former colonial era but significantly reformed, presumably because the incumbent interest groups (the state forestry bureaucracy and some commercial and private interests) have continued to benefit.
In a subsequent paper we consider the extent to which the Forest Rights Act 2006 promises to change this status quo.
M Gopinath Reddy, K Anil Kumar, P Trinadha Rao and Oliver Springate-Baginski
June
2010
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Last modified: 05 June 2010