Adivasis residing in the Ummarpada taluka of Surat district are reported to have been cruelly attacked by forest officials and police on September 5. According to the Lok Sangharsh Morcha, which has been fighting for the rights of the adivasis there, more than 250 armed forest officials and police, accompanied by the taluka magistrate, entered the forest land, which the tribals had been cultivating, at 7 a.m. without warning, and destroyed about 200 acres of their standing crops. Nearly 3,000 adivasis from the neighbouring villages rushed to save their crops and resist the attack, at which the police used tear gas and opened fire. Criminal cases have been lodged against nearly 58 adivasi leaders while crops worth Rs. 25-30 lakh have been destroyed.

The victims are adivasis from 16 villages of the area, who were displaced by the Ukai Dam project. They have been living there since they were displaced in 1971 and have been cultivating the land. They have repeatedly petitioned for legal rights over the land, to the district magistrate of Surat and the forest officials, and have demanded enactment of the Forest Rights Bill, 2006. Forced to survive in extremely poor and difficult conditions, they have no other means of livelihood. Lakhs of youth from the area have to migrate in search of livelihood. Education and health facilities are non-existent. Surat district is not even covered under the much-touted NREGA.

The attack of September 5 is part of a systematic campaign by the local administration and the forest officials to evict the adivasis from the land they have been living on and cultivating for the last 36 years. It is ironic that even as the adivasis of Ummarpada taluka are being attacked in this brutal manner, the Chief Minister of Gujarat is busy announcing ‘development packages’ for adivasis under the ‘Ban Bandhu Yojana’, with an eye to the coming elections!

The Lok Sangharsh Morcha called for a massive rally on September 17, to protest against the attack on the adivasis of Ummarpada and the attempts by the administration to evict the adivasis. The adivasis are demanding immediate action against the officials responsible for the attack, withdrawal of false cases lodged against the adivasi leaders, compensation for damaged crops, legal rights over the land and an end to the police terror.

The situation faced by the adivasis of Ummarpada taluka is the same as that being faced by millions of people all over the country, who are being ruthlessly evicted from their lands in the name of “development” and “conservation”, with no thought being given to their rehabilitation or their livelihood. It is estimated that more than 50 million people were displaced in this manner between 1955 and 1995. The Indian state has used the same anti-people laws devised by the British colonialists, such as the Land Acquisition Act 1894 to evict people at will and attack them when they resist.

People's Voice denounces the attack on the adivasis of Surat and extends full support for their struggle.