The plight of a conservationist

[KANNA KUMAR SIRIPURAPU]

Dear All,

This is the plight of Forty-eight-year-old Sulochana
struggling to make a living for herself and her four children ever
since her husband Kalakar Suna was killed by the timber mafia last
November. Sulochana had been to Bhubaneswar to receive the prestigious
Ashok Babu Smruti Sammana Puraskara which was given posthumously to
Kalakar in January.2010.

Kalakar, the president of the Bhitarpad forest
protection committee in Deogarh, had been mobilising support of
villagers to help protect the forests by checking rampant felling of
trees in the area. On many occasions he had challenged the timber
mafia and made several complaints to the forest authorities against
illegal use of forest produce. On November 28, 2009, Kalakar was found
murdered inside the forest.

 Yesterday, the Additional Sessions Court Deogarh has
awarded life sentence to the two convicts. It’s almost a year but
nothing has changed in the life of Sulochana and her four children.
The widow has appealed time and again to the government to help bail
out her family that has been pushed to uncertainty after the sudden
demise of her husband but in vain. Given the limitation and the
helplessness of Jungle Manch in this regard, we all salute the
solidarity, sympathy and novel gesture shown by it to the grieving
family.

 Article 51A (g) of Indian constitution reiterates that
“It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve
the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild
life, and to have compassion for living creatures”. The moot question
is when Kalakar Suna  a law abiding citizen  while promoting the
larger interest of the state and its environment sacrificed his life,
what should have been the reciprocity of the state towards the
estranged family of the deceased? Whether the state have got any moral
and legal responsibility towards the livelihood security of families
like Kalakar or not?

It’s not merely the question of the family of Kalakar but
it’s about the life, livelihood and dignity of people and community
involved with the cause of forest protection and overall resource
governance. There is a dire need of a comprehensive policy to address
such issues in future. And to bring about that change and to have a
policy to address such issues we need to have a larger discussion
within the civil society organizations, institutions, CBOs in block
and community level and the pool of intelligentia. It’s high time that
we take some concerted effort in this regard.