Bhutia Basti: A relocation effort in futility?

Krishnendu Mukherjee, TNN | Jun 23, 2013, JAYANTI (ALIPURDUAR): On the banks of Jayanti river, Bhutia Basti looks picture-perfect . It is the only village that has ever been relocated from the core area of Buxa Tiger Reserve. But it wasn't any government effort — the floods of 1993 swept away the jungle settlement. 

Two decades on, a trek to the Jayanti hills will lead you past several small settlements in the village that don't figure in the foresters' relocation roster. 

These settlements were built by employees of a dolomite mining firm, whose operations were suspended in 1983 after Buxa was declared a tiger reserve. The forest department never bothered about these 29 families while relocating other villagers of Bhutia Basti to Patpara and Hatipota. 

"We were also denied pattas as we are not tribals," says 50-year-old Arjun Chetri, who lifts boulders from the Jayanti riverbed to run his six-member family. Chetri and his brother feel entitled to Rs 20 lakh under the relocation scheme, but the forest department felt otherwise . R P Saini, field director of Buxa Tiger Reserve, says those living in Bhutia Basti are not forest villagers. 

"They are the employees of the company which had taken the forest land on lease." 

Some of these families have already developed home-stay facilities for tourists in their wooden huts when the Supreme Court has asked governments to phase out tourism from the core areas of tiger reserves. 

Chetri has developed two bedrooms on the first floor of his house, which helps him pocket Rs 15,000-20 ,000 a month during the peak tourism season (October-March ). 

"The forest department has turned its back on us. I save money from what I earn during the tourism season. Who knows when the officials come and ask us to vacate the place," he reasons. 

"Bhutia Basti is on the route to the hills of Bhutan. Its location will disturb the movement of tigers between the forests of Bhutan and Buxa," says wildlife advisory board member Biswajit Roy Chowdhury. 

"Leave aside these 29 labourers' families, what about the Mahakal temple in the core zone? Thousands throng there every year. How can you relocate a temple?" asks a forester. 

The Chetri family may not be an issue for the forest department, but what if families like the Kurmis and Mahatos in Jayanti, with 40-60 members, approach the state if the Centre extends the relocation package to the buffer areas? 

Forest minister Hiten Burman doesn't seem perturbed. "If one can prove his land rights as a forest villager, he will not be relocated," he assures. 

Saini goes a step ahead. "There is nothing to worry since the relocation plan has been shelved and the villagers are happy." On being asked why, he said large tracts of Jayanti and other villages , apart from Bhutia Basti, don't come in the core zone. 

"Why did they plan the relocation package then?" asks Shekhar Bhattacharya , secretary of the Jayanti village relocation committee. 

"Besides, why have they banned tourism in Jayanti from June 15 to September 15 if the area falls in the buffer zone? They could have at least allowed tourism between Rajabhatkhawa checkpost and Jayanti," says Bhattacharya, who is also the secretary of the local eco-development committee. Deputy field director of the reserve Bhaskar J B explained it is a common practice in tiger reserves during the monsoon.