LEGALLY, PARAS Nath doesn't exist. At the age of 52 he is still clueless about where he hails from. Nath was barely five years old when he began toiling hard to grow sal trees in the forest. "Even my parents were not able to trace their antecedents, but they too spent their life planting trees here," he says resignedly, sitting in front of his thatched house.
Nath's is not an isolated case. About 26,000 people in the forests of Maharajganj and Gorakhpur districts of Uttar Pradesh (UP) are facing a similar identity crisis. They are known as the Van Taungiya-a legacy created by the repressive British forest policy and perpetuated by an even more exploitative Indian forest department (FD). Today, the community is facing eviction from the very forests it has nurtured and regarded as 'home'. Hence the frantic search for its roots.
この記事は Down To Earth の May 16, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Down To Earth の May 16, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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