Ministry of Rural Development / Wikimedia Commons (GODL-India). Cropped.
A month after officials razed tribal families' homes in Sehore district's Kosmi village, the National Human Rights Commission wants the collector to explain not just who was on the land, but whether the families' forest rights claims were ever decided.
The commission took cognisance on November 10 and gave the Sehore collector seven days to report on the land's status, how long the families had lived there, the legal authority and procedure for the October 11 demolition, whether they were heard and whether pending land or forest rights claims were examined.
The collector has already given the state one answer. His inquiry report, made public in mid-October, says 31.48 hectares in reserve forest compartment 426 were handed to the Forest Development Corporation in 2020 and planted with teak in 2021. It says the land was vacant until 2021, occupation began in 2022, about 78,700 teak saplings were destroyed, and the nine evicted occupants already had pucca houses in Singhpur and Habibnagar.
The families tell a different story. They told GroundReport they have lived there since 2004, showed forest penalty receipts from 2005, and one resident showed a Forest Rights Act claim filed in March 2024. Its own satellite check, however, found signs of occupation only from 2022.
The date matters. The Act protects forest dwellers in occupation before December 13, 2005, and bars eviction until the verification of their claims is complete. If the satellite record holds, the families would struggle to qualify. If the old receipts relate to this plot, eviction while a claim was pending invites challenge.
Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Budhni's longtime MLA, had condemned the demolition; Chief Minister Mohan Yadav promised justice.
Hashtags: #Legal #TribalRights #Sehore #ForestRightsAct #NHRC #Kosmi #Budhni #ForestDevelopmentCorporation #NHRCKosmiTribalDemolition #LegalCrime
