/ Exposing The Timber Mafia - Misuse of Hak-Hakook

This PIL in Supreme Court of India highlights another modus operandi of the timber mafia in connivance with the officials of Forest Department, Uttarakhand to stop illegal felling of trees in the pretext of ‘hak hakook’ of the villages in Uttarakhand. ‘Hak Hakook’ is the traditional rights of the people to take wood for their personal use. We have shown a real life example of how the timber mafia operates by giving an example of the felling of trees in the wildlife rich dense forest in the Kanwa Ashram region of Pauri Garhwal District, in Uttarakhand.

Another unique method deployed by the timber mafia in connivance with the Forest Department officials is that in the pretext of Hak Hakook they cut trees so far away from the village that no one concerned can find out for whom the wood has been cut. In the event of any enquiry they have a ready alibi by producing the permission for the ‘hak hakook’ of a particular village. The beneficiaries do not have any knowledge of the advantage being taken on their behalf by the Forest Department officials in connivance with the village head-man (pradhan). Normally, an application is made by the village headman who gets the signatures of a few persons who belong to his village and then gives the same to the forest department officials who then sanction the timber mafia to cut many more trees than the sanctioned number. The trees are felled without the knowledge of the beneficiaries. The villagers do not receive any of the wood.

The procedure is that when a village headman applies for ‘hak-hakook’ for his villages he has to enter the same in the meeting register of the panchayat and in open public declare that he is applying for the felling of the trees to the Forest Department on behalf of the villagers, who inform him about their requirement. The application with the demand of the villagers is sent to the Forest Department through the village headman (pradhan). The Forest Department then allots the dead or mature trees in their forest area for felling by marking them. The villagers then cut the trees and take the same to their village. They are not allowed to sell the wood which they receive through ‘Hak-Hakook’.

Six trees were sanctioned for felling under the ‘hak hakook’ for village Syalna, in Dwarikhal Block, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, in Khairgarhi Compartment No. 3 & 4 which is near Kanwa Ashram, Kalalghati. Khairgarhi Compartment no.3 & 4 is part of the dense forest which is adjacent to Rajaji National Park. Being a dense forest Khairgarhi Compartment no.3 & 4 is also the abode of the elephant, bears, tigers and leopards apart from several other wild animals. Along with Syalna the villages of Khodiyal, Jaigaon and Gaula Malla were also given sanction for cutting trees under ‘Huk hukook’ in Khairgarhi Compartment no.3 & 4. On an average about 5 trees are sanctioned for felling per village. For the above mentioned four villages about 20 trees would have been sanctioned. By all probability many more trees would have been cut in the Khairgarhi Compartment 3& 4.

On 17 May 2008, 285 sleepers of Sal wood were confiscated by the police department at Kanwa Ashram, Kalalghati. The Forest Department quickly intervened and said that the sleepers were of ‘Hak Hakook’ of Gaula Malla village. The villagers of Gaula Malla wrote a letter to the District Magistrate informing him that they had not applied for or obtained any wood under ‘Hak Hakook’ nor were they aware of any ‘Hak hakook’ for their village. They also wanted that action to be taken against those who had cut the trees in the pretext of their ‘hak hakook’. The villagers further said that they had not received any wood under Hak Hakook for the last five years. They wanted an enquiry into the matter because this involved their pradhan and the forest officials who were cutting the trees in their names without any information to them. Because there was public outcry the district administration filed a case u/s 379 and 411 against unknown person. In this case also Forest Department has filed a case against two village pradhans. One of them is Sandhya Devi, pradhan of village Syalna whose husband Arjun Singh is a known timber smuggler and the other is Madrasi Dass, pradhan of village Jaigaon.

The place where the wood was confiscated is about 50 to 70 kilometers away from the villages who were supposed to be the beneficiaries. It is also pertinent to mention that in the hilly terrain it is highly cumbersome to carry wood for such long distances. Just the transport cost would be so high that collection of wood would be unviable if the cutting, transportation by headload to the road where the wood can be loaded on trucks and then transporting it to the villages and then the onward transportation by headload to the villages.

This corruption in Forest Department and the large scale felling of trees and smuggling of wood in the pretext of Hak hakook should be thoroughly investigated by a central agency.

We wants new guidelines to be made for Hak hakook allotment which should be done in the forest which is closest to the village so that it happens before the eyes of the villagers. This should not be difficult because nearly 75 % of the area in Uttarakhand is forest area. For example, in the above case Syalna village has a pine forest about one kilometer away from the village and a Saal forest also about one kilometer away. The same is the situation in other villages. There might be a few villages where the forest is a little further away but there would not be many villages which do not have a forest within 5 kilometers of their village. Moreover, all applications should be verified by the forest guard of the region who should confirm the beneficiaries request and then also confirm that the wood has been delivered to the beneficiary.