The two-day Araku festival, organised by the Andhra Pradesh tourism department was flagged off at Araku on Saturday, in spite of opposition from tribal groups and activists from the region. The Araku utsav, an annual event, has been hailed by the state government as a showcase of the ‘rich culture and heritage’, and economy of the region, where the population predominantly comprises Scheduled Tribes.
An amount of Rs 1 crore was reportedly sanctioned for the festival, and the event will feature various food and culture stalls, as well as ‘adventure’ activities like trekking, paramotoring, zipline cycling and rappelling. But activists say that the festival fails to truly promote the interests of tribal communities, and comes at an inopportune time.
Ignoring ongoing tribal movements
Srinivas Ganjivarupu, an activist working with tribal communities in the region, said that in the past couple of months, several rallies and protests have been held against the encroachment of tribal land by non-tribals. This has been done in violation of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, and the Land Transfer Regulation Act 1 of 1970 which regulates the transfer of scheduled areas in the state, to protest the culture and economy of local populations.
According to a statement released by Tribal Joint Action Committee (JAC) Visakhapatnam District Convenor Ramarao Dora, authorities went ahead with the festival in spite of requests from the JAC to cancel it. “At a time when people are protesting the violation of their rights, to go ahead and spend huge amounts of public money on this festival is a mockery of the ongoing movement,” he said.
Srinivas said that the government has failed to address serious economic concerns posed by tribal communities and has instead gone ahead with a tokenistic attempt to boost tourism, which does not make a real difference to Araku valley tribes.
Tourism overshadowing local cultures
“In the name of development through tourism in the Visakha Agency, Araku valley and Lambasingi areas of the district, local cultures are being ignored, and the tribes are losing their identity,” Ramarao Dora said.
Srinivas says that the festival, which happens every year, has remained an insincere attempt at including tribal communities and representing their culture.
“There’s not enough tribal participation. There are food stalls and a few markets, but the tourism department opens up the invites and anyone can set up a stall,” he said, adding that for such events to better represent tribal culture and truly employ local populations, they must be organised by the state government’s Tribal Cultural Research and Training Institute instead.
While there’s a lot of expenditure on the event itself, Srinivas says that the government must ensure that revenue from the festival must be spent on developing infrastructure in tribal villages, like better roads and electricity, which the residents of the valley have been demanding for years.