Trees versus people

摘要

To people in the impoverished hamlet of Badama, in the south-eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, January 1st is independence day. On that day in 2000 they seized rights to mine stone on nearby land, ridding themselves of exploitative contractors. Their wages nearly tripled from a pittance of 20-25 Indian rupees (about 50 American cents) a day; their children started going to school. In celebration, the villagers built a temple, the only structure in Badama that rises much above brow level. Now their newly won freedom is in peril, this time from the Forest Department, which recently came into possession of the land mined by Badama and three other villages. The acreage is not exactly sylvan: a few mango trees punctuate a landscape of rock and dust. But it is now officially forest and, unless the central authorities in distant Delhi say otherwise, may be used only for forestry, however unofficially barren it may be. And so some 500 people stand to lose livelihoods that only recently lifted them above subsistence. "We'll starve," predicts Moolchand, a wizened veteran of the quarries.