On last Thursday, some forest officials entered agricultural fields and damaged standing crops in Birbara and Bhurivel villages under Vyara taluka of Tapi district. The officials set the crop on fire and threatened the tribals not to enter the fields. The tribals whose crops were destroyed said they were not intimated that they had encroached upon the forestland.

On learning about the incident, Harish Gamit, of Birbara village, and Raman Gamit and Balvant Gamit, both of Bhurivel village, rushed to their fields and tired to stop the forest staff from destroying the crops but in vain.

Forest staff Bhikhu Choudhary told them that ''the land belongs to the forest department and nobody can do farming on it".

Later, three farmers contacted Gujarat Adivasi Sabha, an NGO working for tribals. On Friday, the tribals, sarpanchs of the two villages and some district panchayat members gathered outside the forest department office at Vyara and held a demonstration. They also gave a memorandum to the district collector.

"My father Laljibhai was farming on this land since 1972 and after his death, I started farming. All these years nobody disturbed us, but on Thursday, forest officials entered my farming land and burnt the crops. I have no other land for farming and also no other alternative livelihood," said Harish Gamit.

One Raman Kokni has lodged a complaint against Bhikhu Choudhary and 15 other forest personnel at Vyara Police Station.

General Secretary of Gujarat Advisasi Sabha, Paresh Choudhary, expressed fear that similar incidents would take place in future in different areas of South Gujarat. "We estimate the damaged crop to be worth around Rs 8,000. We have given a memorandum to district collector and demanded strict action against the accused forest staff. The land should also be given back to these tribals," he said.

Forest officials, when contacted, said the land comes under reserved forest land and they acted as per the law to free it. "We have been asked to increase the forest area and take up plantation. Slowly, we are removing tribals who have encroached upon the reserve forestland," said Range Forest Officer Mahendrasinh Solanki.