Thread by @Sushmitav1

Unpacking land banks, Gair Majarua lands in Jharkhand
Land is not only required for mining, but also for compensatory afforestation. However people's history in the state is already replete with troubles over common land
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#JustTransition #CommercialCoal
india.mongabay.com/2022/07/land-b…

“Adani company go back,” residents of Jharkhand’s Gondalpura declared in a public hearing organised on July 15, 2022, by the Hazaribagh District Collector’s office to discuss issues surrounding impending land acquisition for an upcoming mine.
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while applying for forest clearance in March 2021, AEL sought more land – 293.53 ha of non-forest land and 219.65 ha of forest land. The private company also asked the state for land from the land banks for compensatory afforestation
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Land is a complex issue in Jharkhand.. It has 23,605 sq kms (about 2 million ha) of Recorded Forest Area which is about 29.6 % of the total geographical land of the state. A land bank includes large tracts of land kept under the control of gov or pvt orgs for future development
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As the land in question comprised of forest land, a lot of other land, also known as rayyati land came into the ambit. Rayyati land..was cultivated by the local farmers and villagers when the zamindari system (land was held by a land owner and leased out to farmers) existed
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Many times, even barren lands would be turned fertile by the labour of the people who ploughed these.
An important part of differentiating rayyati and gair majarua lands is that rayyati lands were taxable and people would receive a receipt on paying taxes (known as raseed katna
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these receipts became important evidence that the particular residents were indeed utilising these lands and were akin to the owners.
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#CommonLands #Jharkhand #Forest #CommercialCoalMines #India @fridays_india @ThereIsNoEarthB @IndiaRebellion @disharavii @AdivasisMatter

Seventy-seven-year-old Devnath Mahto, a former school teacher, and also a veteran leader from the area, said, "The land titles we had received as gair majarua, and also had receipts, but the former BJP government had created land banks and taken the land under these land banks"
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Common lands in villages which were known by the name of gair majarua lands, earlier recorded in the name of munda/manki or pradhan (head) got recorded as gov lands in land records namely khatians. Through this process, the gov obtained the right to settle this land...
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Although the settlement reports stated that this land belonged to “the inhabitants of a village as a whole or to a certain section of those inhabitants collectively”, it lacked clarity and community rights weren’t recorded as before. The process of vesting of rights deprived
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people of their customary rights. Fr George Monipally, working on forest rights said, “Though people may have been cultivating the land, influential persons got the lands recorded in their names..the actual owners of the land are usually dispossessed despite having cultivated.
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"So those lands already brought into cultivation before 1948, stood recorded in RoRs as GM lands; ignoring this fact when these records were digitised for first time, by simply pressing a button, Raghubar Das Gov put all these..lands in land banks" Sr Adv Rashmi Katyayan noted
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Close to half of the land in the land banks is forest land. And FRA is applicable on these. However, “In Jharkhand, the situation is different, the forests are not inside the villages, villages are inside the forests, Here CFR rights should be applicable for the common land.”
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However, the government sees it differently. Uma Shankar Singh, the Director of Land and Revenue Department and previously the District Collector of Dhanbad told Mongabay-India that these issues “haven’t come to the knowledge of our department.”
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“It may be a good idea to see where the processes are currently, and see what the concerns of the raiyyats are, and approach accordingly,” he said
"The portal and the information there have been created on receipt of reports from district headquarters"
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jharbhoomi.jharkhand.gov.in/LandBankReport…

Shalini Saboo, assistant professor at the Institute of Legal Studies in Ranchi University, emphasised that development projects such as these are likely to further marginalise Adivasi women, who have struggled for rights recognition despite intense contribution to labour
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@kanchikohli points out several mechanisms to address some of these problems
“First it is crucial that the state govs clarify and complete the process of recognising and recording deemed forests, which will be able to clarify the applicability of the FCA 1980 on such lands
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Second, the central gov has repeatedly encouraged state govs to create land banks so that the availability of land doesnt hinder the forest diversion procedures in favour of both gov and public sector cos. State governments have also been willing participants in this practice”
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it remains to be seen if active efforts are taken by the state and central governments to start resolving land issues for the people of the state otherwise it is a ready recipe for land conflicts.

19/19- End.