He told this paper that by virtue of this Act, the tribal development department has become the nodal agency for the implementation of the Act. “Hence, the task of implementing the forest law pertaining to settling the claims of tribals over the land they have been tilling till December 13, 2005, be handed over to the tribal development department,” he said.

He said he would now take up the issue with the state government by writing a letter to Chief Secretary Manjula Subramaniam.

While asking the state government to desist the forest department from carrying out activities that could further foment trouble and tension in tribal areas, Mistry said the foresters took possession of land with standing crops in the forest areas of Khedbrahma. This despite the fact that the new Act banned the officials to evict tribals till such time the new forest laws were finally implemented.

Stating that such acts would further create suspicion in the minds of the tribals about the sincerity of the state government with regard to the implementation of the Act, he expressed apprehension that such provocations might lead to a fresh tension and disturbances in the areas.

He said that in an open letter to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, which was published in the October 2007 edition of Naya Marg, a Gujarati journal, he had asked him to ensure that operations to dislodge the tribals from forest land be stopped till the implementation of the Act.

He said that after the new Act was passed in the Parliament, he submitted details about 26,000 tribals eligible for forestland in 34 talukas of 10 districts in the state. He said a list of 16,000 tribals were submitted in September 2007 with proofs of residence and identity of the eligible tribals, adding that another list of over 10,000 tribals was submitted after the Assembly elections to help the state administration carry out its exercise of settling the claims of adivasis over forest land amicably.

Mistry, who has been moving around in tribal areas of Sabarkantha district and nearby areas ever since the Polo forest range incident, said the tribals did not cut any trees as reported. He said only a few wild plants called Bordi and Khakharas were chopped.

He went on to say that circumstantial evidence suggested that Sanjibhai, one of the tribals reportedly killed in the police firing, appeared to be a case of fake encounter. The firing had taken place on February 13 when a group of tribals had assembled outside the Antarsuba police station for the release of their relatives rounded up by the police for alleged tree felling.