Jenu Kuruba leaders refuse to call Nagarahole a tiger reserve
Mysuru: Jenu Kuruba tribal leaders from Karadikallu Atturu Kolli Haadi inside the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in Ponnampet taluk of Kodagu district said on Monday that they will never call Nagarahole a tiger reserve.
This is not a tiger reserve. It is just Nagarahole. We were forcibly moved out of our soil in the name of forest-tiger protection, Shivu JA, JK Timma, and Shivamma said.
Speaking at a press meet organised by the Nagarahole Indigenous Land Assertion Committee, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and Communities Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA), they alleged that those who don't know anything about the forest are encroaching on the forests in the name of conservation.
Shivu stated that all the 52 Jenu Kuruba families now staying in their ancestral land are happy with what is available inside the forest now. "For decades, we were made to struggle in the lane houses," he said. He alleged that forest department officials misused the provisions of the law to displace them.
Timma recollected his experience with a tiger conservation project where he demonstrated his understanding of the forest.
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"Unfortunately, those who don't know anything about the forest and wild animals are allowed to encroach on the forests while those who know the forest are sent out of the forests," he charged.
He alleged that the tiger conservation projects resulted in the death of tigers.
Shivamma urged govt agencies not to displace them as they are leading a real life in their own hamlets.
Nitin Rai, an independent scholar who has looked at the socio-ecological impacts of wildlife conservation, and Pranab Doley, a community leader from the Mising community, Kaziranga, Assam, and convener of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Committee, who is also the founding member of CNAPA, spoke during the press meet.
Rai alleged that govt agencies are misusing the increase in the number of tigers to dilute the forest laws for the benefit of mining and other activities.
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Time of India
08-06-2025
- Time of India
No hint of Attur Kolli Haadi in sat images, studies: Forest department
Mysuru: A month after 52 Jenu Kuruba families claimed possession of forest land and constructed three sheds, asserting it is their ancestral land, the forest department denied the claim. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now They stated that there is no mention of Attur Kolli Haadi in any satellite images between 1985 and 2025. Additionally, there are no govt sketches or documents supporting the claim. Foresters clarified that this haadi has been created on records solely for the purpose of illegitimately obtaining forest rights. They stated that no Jenu Kuruba families were forcefully evicted from their haadi in the 1980s, as claimed. Assistant conservator of forest, Nagarahole wildlife sub-division, Ananya Kumar, on Saturday, informed reporters that a joint survey was conducted in the Attur Kolli forest area. This survey was conducted in the presence of surveyors and staff from the ADLR office, tribal welfare department, and forest department, with the help of satellite imagery from 1985 to 2025. It was clearly established that no human habitation or cultivation has ever taken place in the surveyed area. "The area is a natural forest," he explained. A survey sketch made by the Mysore working plan wing in 2006-07 clearly identifies and demarcates the various tribal hamlets within the jurisdiction of Nagarahole Wildlife Range but makes no mention of Attur Kolli Haadi. Additionally, the management plan of Nagarahole National Park 2000-2010 (approved by GoK in 2002), which lists 43 tribal hamlets (page 317-318) inside the core area of Nagarahole National Park, makes no mention of the so-called Attur Kolli Haadi. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In 1999-2000, Ramanaiah, N Nagaaj, and Ashoka from the University of Mysore conducted a survey of human habitations inside Nagarahole National Park. They prepared a report named 'Inhabitants Of Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Nagarahole - Family Profile'. This report listed 1,041 tribal families and named 3,740 persons living inside Nagarahole, but has no record of Attur Kolli Haadi or any person living in the Attur Kolli forest area, he said. He also said a Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLC) meeting was held in Madikeri in May under the chairmanship of assistant commissioner, Madikeri. The meeting scrutinised the petition filed by RFO, Nagarahole, and examined the evidence supporting the fact that the Attur Kolli forest area is a natural forest and no historical occupation, habitation, or cultivation has ever taken place in the patch of forest claimed by the applicants. Panchayat and ITDP officials also acknowledged that there is no record of Attur Kolli Haadi. The committee also deemed that the evidence presented by the claimants is insufficient to prove historical habitation and cultivation. In view of this, the committee rejected all forest rights claims pertaining to the Attur Kolli forest area. The claimants have been given an opportunity to appeal the decision of the SDLC at the district level committee (DLC), he said. The applicants—52 Jenu Kuruba families—have 40 days to appeal against the SDLC decision at the DLC.
The Hindu
03-06-2025
- The Hindu
Group of over 200 demands Tribal Welfare Department to urgently address violations faced by tribals in Nagarahole
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Time of India
02-06-2025
- Time of India
Adivasis say Project Tiger and tourism are displacing them from their ancestral land
TOI correspondent from London: Indigenous communities across India are being pushed out of their ancestral lands in the name of tourism and expansion of tiger projects whilst the laws to protect them are being diluted and not implemented properly, Adivasis told a global press briefing on Monday. 'They say India has got freedom. But I think Adivasi people have not yet got freedom,' J C Shivamma, from the Jenu Kuruba tribe, said at the online event organised by Community Network Against Protected Areas. She is among the 52 households who reoccupied their ancestral land within Nagarhole tiger reserve on May 5, 35 years after their families were forcibly evicted. 'Some of our family members died when in the plantations, but our sacred deities, our graveyard, everything that concerns us, is still in the village, so we used to go back to bury our people in our ancestral land, but it was always a fight with the forest department toconduct rituals. We consider our ancestors to be on the lands, they become deities and this way we were tortured. If we have to die, we will die on our ancestral land,' she said. Shivu JA recalled how their houses were burnt and elephants brought to destroy their fields when they were evicted from Karadikallu. 'This land is ours. It's not any tiger project or scheme of the govt for tiger conservation,' he said. 'Our elders are very happy now. We are having our food, we are going for honey collection. We have our own water resource. We sit together in the evening, and they are teaching us songs. All these songs and lessons were silenced for 40 years." 'The forest department keeps saying that only after your rights are recognised, you can live on this land. We already have these rights,' he said. The Jenu Kurubas are filing a case against the Forest Department under the SC/ST Atrocities Act for withholding their rights and filing an appeal against 39 rejected forest rights claims. 'Why are their rights not being recognised despite the notification of central legislation such as the Forest Rights Act 2006,' asked scholar Nitin Rai. 'People across the country in different states are fighting the same battles. It is important to find a way to raise a collective voice for what is happening all over,' said lawyer Lara Jesani.
