Sanjay Gandhi National Park: Still in the wild on rehabilitation

It’s been more than 15 years that the Bombay High Court ordered relocation of all illegal settlements inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) to accommodations outside park limits.

The forest department, however, has failed to rehabilitate even half of the eligible settlers. Statistics show that out of the 25,144 eligible settlements, which the department was ordered to relocate within 18 months in May 1997, only 9,346 have been relocated. Non-profit organisation Vanashakti procured these figures with the help of an RTI plea.

The rehabilitation issue is important because of the man-animal conflict in SGNP that recently led to the killing of a six year old by a leopard.

The number of those eligible for rehabilitation was cited as “approximate” indicating the forest department’s poor knowledge about the actual number of park inmates. It listed two reasons for being unable to relocate: no water connection (1,182 cases), unavailability of flats (654 cases).

SGNP director Sunil Limaye, said, “Since mid-2011, we have given inmates 635 houses through the lottery system. Other systems of establishing eligible encroachers were brought into force, and soon, 1,700 more will be relocated. Even though the HC’s first order came in 1997, the actual process began only in 2007.”

He added that the process could have been speeded up further if the policy proposed in late 2011 of resettling entire sectors (nagars or padas) were allowed to be cleared but the court and Nagari Nivara Hakka Samiti did not permit that.

Environment activist Debi Goenka who had filed the 1996 PIL in the HC believes the forest department is not doing enough. “Tens of thousands of encroachments were removed in 2004-05 but nothing has been done after that,” said Goenka.

Stalin D, Vanashakti project director, said that the forest department does not have political support for removing encroachments. “The voter base of the politicians exists in these slums so they always oppose, even threaten, assault and manhandle forest staff, who come to clear encroachments. No action is taken to protect the staff and hence they tend to look the other way,” he said.

Meanwhile, many of the park’s adivasi inmates who have been residing there even before it was notified as a national park in 1983, seem to have no confidence in the forest department and don’t want to be relocated.

Those who have been relocated are staying in a seven-floor SRA building in Chandivli. But this has become unpopular among park inmates for its alleged poor living conditions.

Tumnipada resident Bistur Lakma Kolekar, who belongs to the Malhar-Koli community, said, “I have been staying here since birth. Why should i go?”

His wife, Anusaya, explained the family’s hesitation.

“The alternative houses at Chandivli don’t have water and power supply, or even proper bathrooms. Many people are returning from there to the park because they can neither live a decent life nor earn for their survival,” she said.