Nomads and Forest Rights, Is It a Myth? An Indian Perspective on the Forest-Dependent Pastoral Communities and Their Practices in Protected Areas

A peripheral observation of the Indian legal regime on the Indigenous Peoples’ right to the forest provides a tale of progression made particularly in the past two decades. The present regime provides a resolute case for the protection of rights of indigenous peoples including their right to own, use, develop, and control the lands, territories, and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation and practices. It indeed seems that the enactment of forest management legislation furthers India’s intent towards moving towards a serious discourse on realising the rights, particularly that of the forest-dependent tribal. Accordingly, these national frameworks are intended to confer grassroots democracy through institutions of community forest management on these groups. Further, this process is to be supported by the concept of Community Forest Resource Rights (CFR). Herein, within the CFR also enshrined are the traditional pastoral rights of these communities passed on through generations. In reflection, a substantial part of the present literature hints towards a systemic failure on the part of the state in maintaining the due process required in preserving the pastoral rights of these communities as the growing reality of conservation-induced human displacement takes shape in India. The chapter examines the critical questions pertaining to the social efficacy of state’s legal instruments in restricting pastoral rights of Indigenous communities in the Indian forest landscape. Also, within the above scope the chapter seeks to understand where the limits of legal centralism lie.