MADIKERI: The Adivasi tribes of Nagarahole staged a protest in front of the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, urging the implementation of the Forest Rights Act. Alleging that the department is devising plans to evict them from the forest region, they demanded that the tribes must not be separated from their ancestral land.
“We have been living in the forests since ancestral times, and our culture and livelihood depend on it. No official must try to evict us from the forest region,” said the protestors. The protest was led by the Nagarahole Adivasi Jammapale Rights Establishment Committee, with hundreds of tribes participating.
“Forest is our breath and life. We do not wish to live outside the forest, and no measures must be taken to rehabilitate us outside the forest region,” they insisted. The protestors called for the withdrawal of any plans to evict and rehabilitate them.
“We tribes have a unique culture. Tiger, leopard, elephants, bison, deer and other wildlife are embedded in our culture. Our existence is being questioned by the forest department. We are being issued notices to immediately vacate the forest land. No authority has the right to take away our existence,” the protestors added. They demanded the full implementation of the Forest Rights Act, including the granting of forest resource rights and habitat rights.
Meanwhile, Assistant Conservator of Forests Annanya Kumar addressed the protestors, stating, “There are no plans to evict the tribes from the forest. Tribes who wish to relocate will be provided with the necessary support. The notice from the Tiger Reserve is not an eviction notice.”