Nagarahole’s Adivasis Accuse Authorities of Violating Constitutional and Customary Rights

Adivasi Communities of Nagarahole Protest Against Conservation-Linked Evictions, Demand Recognition of Rights

Kodagu, Karnataka – August 10, 2025
Marking World Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Adivasi communities from 30 villages in the Nagarahole forests staged a two-day protest, accusing forest and government authorities of violating their constitutional and customary rights in the name of wildlife conservation.

The demonstrations, organised by the Nagarahole Adivasi Jammapale Hakku Sthapana Samiti (NAJHSS), were held at the Nanachi Tiger Safari gate and drew hundreds of Adivasi families, leaders, and activists. Protesters decried forced evictions, harassment, and the growing commercialisation of their ancestral lands.

Ancestral Lands as ‘Tourism Zones’

Participants installed a signboard declaring Nagarahole a self-governing Adivasi territory, stating:

“Nagarahole forest is the sacred customary lands of Adivasi clans and families living here… In this ancestral territory, people, animals, and the forest are equals.”

Protesters alleged that, while they face restrictions on accessing their own lands for rituals and livelihood activities, tiger reserve authorities promote commercial safaris without their consent.
“Thousands of tourists come every year to see tigers, elephants, and deer on the very lands from which we were evicted,” the statement read. “Our sacred spirits and deities are being turned into tourism spectacles.”

Resorts and private operators were accused of running unregulated safaris with the tacit approval of forest officials. NAJHSS leaders called for an investigation into “the corrupt nexus” between resorts, plantation owners, and authorities.

Unfulfilled Promises Under the Forest Rights Act

The protesters criticised both district administrations and the state government for failing to recognise their Community Forest Rights (CFR), Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR), and habitat rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA)—despite repeated directives from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

“We have been filing claims since 2011,” said JA Shivu, NAJHSS leader and president of the Karadikallu Forest Rights Committee. “All we get are rejections on arbitrary grounds. This is deliberate harassment.”

The protesters accused the Congress-led Karnataka government of being a “silent bystander” to these injustices, despite championing the FRA as its legislative achievement.

Key Demands

A charter of demands was presented at the protest, which will be formally submitted to the Chief Minister and Governor. These include:

• No Tiger Safaris until CFR and habitat rights are fully recognised.

• Withdrawal of False Cases filed under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 against Adivasi community members and their supporters.

• End to Militarisation and AI Surveillance in the forest, which they allege is aimed at suppressing demands for rights.

• Declaration of Fifth Schedule Areas in all Adivasi-majority regions, including Nagarahole, with immediate implementation of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA).

A Question to the State and Nation

The protest ended with a pointed appeal to the public and policymakers:

“Why are we being made slaves in other people’s lands and branded as encroachers on the lands we inherited from our ancestors?”

The agitation was supported by multiple organisations, including the Nagarahole Budakattu Krishikara Sangha, Rashtriya Moola Adivasi Vedike (Karnataka), Community Network Against Protected Areas (India), National Adivasi Alliance (India), and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).

Key Quotes:

1. JA Shivu, NAJHSS leader:
   “We have lived here for generations, yet we are treated like encroachers in our own lands.”

2. Protest statement:
   “Our sacred spirits and deities are being turned into tourism spectacles without our consent.”

3. On government inaction:
   “The Congress boasts of creating the Forest Rights Act, but in Karnataka it has been a silent bystander to ongoing injustices.”

4. On tourism and displacement:
   “Tourists come to see tigers and elephants on the very lands from which we were violently evicted.”

5. On the Fifth Schedule demand:
   “Adivasi-majority regions must be declared Fifth Schedule Areas. Anything less is a continuation of historical injustice.”