Just about a kilometre from the Mohla bus stop, a sprawling timber depot, larger than a football stadium, stretches across the landscape. It has endless rows of neatly stacked teak logs and bamboo poles arranged by size in different sections. Not too far from the depot stands a large office complex of the Forest Department.

Every year, two to three lakh trees—mostly teak and bamboo—are felled here, even as around six lakh saplings are planted across the Mohla division of the Panabaras Project. The division is part of a forest management unit under the Chhattisgarh Rajya Van Vikas Nigam Ltd (CGRVVN) in the Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki (MMAC) district. CGRVVN is another name for Chhattisgarh’s Forest Development Corporation (FDC).

The FDC operates as a government company registered under the Companies Act, 1956. It began its activities in the Mohla region under the Panabaras Project Division in 1976, when Chhattisgarh was part of Madhya Pradesh. It was set up to raise revenue through agroforestry by clearing out naturally growing local vegetation of mixed species and turning the area into commercial plantation fields of fast-growing, economically valuable species.

On an industrial scale, the corporation undertakes monoculture plantations of teak, bamboo, and other revenue-generating species, which are planted, harvested, and sold through auctions. The revenue generated is transferred to the State government’s accounts.

A colonial legacy

The approach of viewing forests primarily as economic resource dates back to the British colonial era and has had a socio-ecological impact. As the renowned historian Ramachandra Guha argues, this extractive mindset has far-reaching consequences for both the environment and the region’s forest-dwelling communities. Colonial forest policies, centred on commercial exploitation of forest resources, caused environmental degradation and had a profound negative impact on tribal populations whose survival and cultural identities were linked to the forest.

After seven decades of Independence, the Forest Department’s approach towards forests remains unchanged in some regions of modern India, as in Mohla.

Says Devendra Sahu, manager of the Panabaras Project Division: “The State recognised the importance and necessity of this department, keeping in mind market demands.” That is why, he said, “the FDC was established and continues to operate”.

The FDC certainly generates revenue in Mohla, but traditional forest-dwelling communities, whose lives and livelihoods are deeply rooted in the forest, are denied access to forests even though their rights are recognised by the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

Adivasi communities constitute 63 per cent of the total population of Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki. “The Adivasi lifestyle, culture, tradition, and more importantly, livelihood and nutrition are intrinsically connected to the forest,” said Rajendra Singh Netam, 40, a known resource person for forest-based livelihoods and implementation of the FRA in the region.

Ramesh Hidame, 60, is an Adivasi rights activist and farmer from Pendakodu village in Mohla block. He said: “When a child is born, the first ritual we perform is sati, where the belly button is massaged with mahua oil. As the child grows and reaches adulthood, during marriage ceremonies, the mahua plant is placed at the centre of the mandap [the place where marriage takes place]. And when an Adivasi passes away, it is mandatory to carry the body to the burial ground on kadharghas, a grass variety found in the local forest. From birth to death, the forest and its trees remain at the centre of our lives.”

Forests for sustenance and livelihood

The Gond Adivasi community depends on agriculture for both sustenance and livelihood. In the lean agricultural months, from December to May, men often migrate to metropolitan cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru to work in construction or manufacturing industries. Others engage in local employment through the Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB—G RAM G), earlier known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, said Sukdas Mandavi, 42. Some of them work with the Forest Department in plantation and timber-harvesting drives. Some are also employed by the Forest Department under the Forest Development Agency (FDA) for forest management and conservation work, he said. The women collect minor non-timber forest products (NTFPs) such as mahua, char, tendu, haraa, amla, and baheda.

“Our community cultivates paddy, black gram, maize, and other crops during the rainy season, from June to November. Almost every household owns a piece of land with at least one acre—four acres at the most—granted under individual rights under the FRA,” said Sukdas Mandavi. 

The FRA, which recognises the rights of forest-dwelling tribal communities to forest resources, “encompasses rights of self-cultivation and habitation which are usually regarded as individual rights; and community rights [such] as grazing, fishing and access to water bodies in forests” (Ministry of Tribal Affairs website).

For indigenous communities, the forest is the source of food security and nutrition. Forest fruits are rich sources of minerals and vitamins, while seeds and nuts add much-needed calories, oil, and protein to their diet. Edible roots and tubers provide carbohydrates, while mushrooms, often gathered after the rains, are packed with essential nutrients such as selenium, potassium, and vitamins.

Wild leafy greens serve as a crucial source of proteins and micronutrients like vitamin A, calcium, and iron, all of which are often lacking in the diets of nutritionally vulnerable communities. Wild meat, though less frequently discussed, remains an important source of protein for many forest-dwelling families.

“The forest has everything we need—from food to what we use to build a home, we find everything in the forest,” said Bhimla Bhai, 65, a resident of Gubiyagarh village in Manpur block. “We use mahua oil, which is extracted from mahua seeds, for cooking. We collect mushrooms and tubers like sweet potato, yam, and cassava. Fruits like mango, jackfruit, and blackberries are abundant. We also get fish and crabs from the streams.” According to a UN report, across the world, over 3,200 species of wild animals are consumed for food—rodents, small mammals, birds, eggs, fish, and even certain insects gathered from the forests continue to supplement household diets.

NTFPs play a crucial role in supporting indigenous livelihoods, serving both subsistence needs and income generation. Among the most important NTFPs are honey, fuelwood, charcoal, forest materials that are used to make utensils, and edible fruits. NTFPs contribute approximately 39 per cent of the total annual household income for forest-dependent communities, according to a study published in 2025 in the Journal of Landscape Ecology.

The gap between promise and practice

“I make baskets, broomsticks, and other household items by weaving together tender bamboo strips and sell them at the local market for Rs.100 each,” said Lalitha Bhai, 30, of Gubiyagarh village. “One day, in 2020, when I was returning from the forest after collecting bamboo, the forest guards stopped me and took away the bamboo and my axe. They told me my husband must come to the office if we wanted the axe.” 

This is not an isolated incident. Communities here find themselves locked in a protracted struggle with both the FDC and the Forest Department, which continue to obstruct the community’s legal entitlements under the FRA. The FRA formally acknowledges the historical injustices faced by forest-dwelling communities. But on the ground, these communities still struggle to secure their rights.

“Our community’s conflict with the FDC goes back to the early 1980s,” said Ramesh Hidame. “Lal Shyam Shah, known as ‘one day MP’ and one of the first parliamentarians who raised a voice for tribal rights in independent India, led a protest against the FDC’s commercial logging operations. Like the Chipko movement, we formed human chains around trees to stop the state-backed felling of trees. I remember, I was a young boy then.” 

Industrial-scale monocropping has led to the loss of several native species, especially those that provide NTFPs like char and bhada. Adivasi villagers have, on several occasions, attempted to resist FDC operations. However, due to a lack of awareness about their forest rights, they could not effectively resist the state machinery.

Over the years, several NGOs and civil society activist groups have conducted awareness campaigns and supported the communities in filing legal claims to rights recognised by the FRA.

The community has been receiving Individual Forest Rights (IFR) titles since 2009. According to Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Dinesh Kumar Patel, over 9,000 IFR titles were distributed to forest-dwelling communities across the district until June 2025, and over 700 IFR claims and 22 community forest rights (CFR) claims have been withheld since 2022.

Village-level mobilisation to secure rights

Harilal Kodopi, 37, is president of the Community Forest Rights Management Committee (CFRMC) in Gubiyagarh village of Manpur block. (The CFRMC is a group formed by the gram sabha and is responsible for protecting, managing, and conserving the forest commons by making rules for sustainable use and ensuring that forest benefits reach all households in the village.) He said: “In our village, almost every household has agricultural land given by the government in 2009 under the FRA as part of individual forest rights. My community didn’t know about CFR until NGOs and civil society groups made us aware. In recent years we came to know about CFR and that the entire village can have collective rights over the forest.”

Gubiyagarh is one of 22 villages in the district that have, with the support of NGOs, filed claims on forests located on village peripheries. Documentation for their CFR and community forest resource right (CFRR) claims under the FRA was submitted to the district administration in December 2023. While CFR recognises forest dwellers’ rights to access, collect, and use forest produce like firewood, bamboo, mahua, tendu, fruits and other resources for daily needs and livelihoods, CFRR gives legal rights to the community to protect, manage and conserve the forest area.

“The CFR claim process started in 2022. We held a gram sabha in the village and formed the Forest Rights Committee [FRC] with 10 members. I was also part of the committee,” said Harilal Kodopi. “Along with our village elders, we prepared a sketch map of the village and its traditional forest boundaries. After that, we informed the Forest Department, Revenue Department, and surrounding villages about the joint verification and GPS mapping. Together with the Revenue Inspector and the Forest Ranger, Harilal Kodopi once again marked the boundary points.”

The 22 villages are Kande, Marka Tola, Tekam Tola, Kodevadda, Pendakodo, Galle Tola, Mohchar, Khadbattar, Lamti, Pandarwani, Majhiyapar, Chirchari, Mading Piding Dhenu, Dalakasa, Butakasa, Belargondi, Sansargarh, Padbharri, Gubiyagarh, Hilchur, Khedgaon, and Kohka

The claims were first reviewed and cleared at the Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLC), which is headed by officials of the block, tehsil and the Forest Department. They were then forwarded to the District Level Committee (DLC), chaired by district revenue officials and the DFO. The DLC approved the claims in January 2025 for all 22 villages.

Kulardho, Dulki, and Taram Tola, villages in the same district, submitted CFR and CFRR claim applications in 2022 and received the titles in February 2024.

“It was difficult to understand these laws and make our community aware; they are very complicated,” said Harilal Kadopi. “But with the help of NGOs, we completed all the paperwork and submitted our claim application in December 2023. Even after all that, we haven’t received any response from the district administration.”

The gram sabha of Gubiyagarh village wrote a letter to the district administration requesting CFR and CFRR title certificates and seeking the cooperation of local government institutions and the Forest Department in setting up a CFRMC. There was no response.

All other villages that did not get CFR and CFRR titles also repeatedly wrote to the district administration, but to no avail.

The gram sabha of Kulardho, one of the villages that received community rights titles in February 2024 for over 700 hectares of forest area, along with its CFRMC, subsequently passed a resolution to impose a complete ban on tree-felling within the forest commons—property not owned by any individual privately but collectively managed by the community traditionally.

In November 2024, officials of the FDC, which has controlled the village’s forest commons since the 1970s, arrived with labourers to cut down teak trees. However, the Kulardho gram sabha stopped them from felling trees and wrote to the District Collector seeking immediate intervention in the matter.

“Some FDC officials came to the forest and started marking numbers on the trees to cut them later. They didn’t discuss anything with the gram sabha,” said B.R. Ghuda, 50, president of the village CFRMC. “We stopped them from marking more trees, passed a gram sabha resolution to stop tree-felling, and sent a letter to the Collector. The officials never came again to cut trees in our village’s rightfully secured forest area.”

From petitions to protest

When the administration failed to respond to repeated pleas for CFR titles, people of the affected villages came together to form a “maha gram sabha” or federation/union of village councils. This body, helped by the CSO Ekta Parishad, sent a petition to the Chief Minister on December 9, 2024, demanding community rights to their forests. Again, there was no response.

In the same month, leaders of the maha gram sabha met a local MP, Santosh Pandey, and sought his intervention. After Pandey took up the matter, the district administration agreed to distribute the titles. On January 15, 2025, the administration, along with the MP, distributed CFR and CFRR titles to three villages, Marka Tola, Kande, and Mading Piding Dhenu of Mohla and Manpur blocks. But the titles were taken back almost immediately.

Murharam Taram, 47, president of the FRC of Marka Tola village in Mohla, recalled what happened after he got a call from the Collector’s office inviting him to the ceremony for distribution of CFR and CFRR titles: “I, along with my village CFRMC secretary, went to the Collector’s office. After waiting for nearly an hour, the MP and other officials arrived around 11 am. They called us into a meeting room, handed over the certificates to all three village representatives, took a few photos with the MP along with officials. The officials then took back the certificates saying that the DFO was on leave and had not yet signed them. They asked us to collect the certificates after a week, once the signature was done. But even after that, I, along with other villagers, went many times, yet the authorities didn’t respond.”

The maha gram sent a notice to the Collector on May 31, 2025, seeking the release of CFR and CFRR titles for all 22 villages. But, only two villages Butakasa and Belargondi, whose claims fell under the revenue forest area, were awarded titles within a week.

Umend Kunjam of Majhiyapar village said that the gram sabha leaders believed that the FDC, along with district administration, was deliberately withholding CFR titles of villages in the purview of the FDC’s administration because Kulardho had successfully challenged the FDC’s authority after receiving the titles.

On June 16, 2025, more than 1,000 people from the villages whose titles were withheld marched from Mohla main road to the Collector’s office, raising slogans like “Nigam Hatao, MMC Bachao, Jai Jungle Jamin” (remove the nigam, save the district, long live the forest) and submitted a petition.

According to Adivasi community leaders, the District Collector convened a meeting with maha gram sabha leaders and said that the forest land to which these villages were claiming community rights was under the FDC’s administrative control and distribution of CFR titles would require more time.

In December 2025, the maha gram sabha submitted a formal memorandum to the Collector. The administration has promised to resolve the issues soon by conducting a joint meeting with community leaders and FDC officials in the first week of February 2026. As of April 9, 2026, there was no progress in the matter.

But the villagers cannot afford to give up hope. “The forest is our identity, life, and livelihood. Our community cannot exist without the forest. The FDC’s activities have led to the extinction of many native species in our region, directly impacting our livelihood, culture, and traditions,” said Ramesh Hidame. “We will not allow the FDC to continue; we will fight until we get our rights.”

Mohalla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki is among the 38 districts that were notified as affected by left-wing extremism (LWE) in December 2024. The Central government has set an ambitious target to end the left-wing extremism by April 1, 2026. But can peace last without the rights of local communities being recognised?

Manthati Sai Kiran is pursuing MA in Development at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, and writes on the intersections of society, policy and grassroots realities.

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