The tribal communities in the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve on Saturday, August 9, installed a board outside the reserve forest gates, proclaiming that people are about to enter Adivasi lands.
“The Nagarahole forests are the ancestral land of Adivasi clans. You are now entering the traditional boundaries of the Adivasi peoples of the Nagarahole forests. Nagarahole is a self-governing area of the Adivasi people. This land is the habitat of the Adivasi people. In these forests, the people, animals and the forests are equal. The customary laws of the Adivasi people and the special provisions of the grama sabha are applicable here. Your conduct here must be respectful and dignified.”
This is a translation of a board that the tribal communities erected outside the Nanachi gate of the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in Kodagu district on August 9, also the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
About 100 people from the Yerava, Jenu Kuruba, Betta Kuruba, and Iruliga Adivasi communities from 26 haadis (tribal hamlets) in Kodagu, Mysuru, and Mandya districts gathered at the Nanachi gate in Virajpet taluk to assert their historical claim to the Nagarahole forests and to reiterate their demands for recognition of their rights under the Forest Rights Act and an end to harassment by the Forest Department.
The two-day protest, which started on Saturday, is the continuation of the tribal communities’ assertion of their rights, which has gained momentum since May, when 52 families of Karadikallu Attur Kolli village announced their intention to reoccupy ancestral lands in the Nagarahole forests that they were evicted from around 40 years ago.
Asked about the communities’ decision to erect the board outside the Nanachi gate, JK Shivu, leader of the Nagarahole Adivasi Jammapaale Hakku Sthapana Samiti, pointed to the arch announcing the entry to the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve and other smaller boards near the arch put up by the Coorg Wildlife Society, urging visitors to use dustbins and warning against the use of single-use plastics.
“You see this board saying Nagarahole Tiger Reserve; you will also see dozens of boards put up by organisations such as the Coorg Wildlife Society all over the forest. If they can put up their boards, why shouldn’t we? If we don’t put up our board, how will people know this is our jamma (ancestral land)?” he told TNM.
This is the second time the tribal communities have put up a signboard asserting their historical and traditional claim to the Nagarahole forests. On May 14, after the 52 families returned to their ancestral village, Karadikallu Attur Kolli, inside the Nagarahole forest, the Forest Department put up a signboard saying that under Section 27 of the Wildlife Protection Act, their presence in the tiger reserve was an offence.
In response, a few days later, on May 20, the Adivasis put up their own signboard right next to the one erected by the Forest Department. It said, “Under Section 9 of the Forest Department, Nanga kaadu, nanga jamma, nanga aaLaku (our forest, our ancestral land, our rule).”
The board then went on to mention all the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act and Forest Rights Act that the Forest Department itself had allegedly violated.
Our land, our rule
The protest, which started at around 11 am, continued until about 4.30 pm. Protestors held up placards saying, “It is we who are the children of the forest. It is we who are the kings of the forest’, and ‘Our forest, our ancestral land, our rule.”
During the protest, Nanachi gate rang out with songs and slogans, both in Kannada and the Jenu Kuruba language, asserting Adivasi rights to the forest and criticising the Forest Department’s conservation policy.
“Nagarahole Kadu,” Shivu called out, and the protesters replied with cries of “Ajjayyana beedu”, meaning that the Nagarahole forest was their ancestors’ home.
Virajpet MLA AS Ponnanna arrived at the protest site around noon and accepted a memorandum from the protestors.
Shivu read out some of the key demands of the tribal community.
Ponnanna said that he would raise the issues that were conveyed to him in the Assembly. “I am in no way saying that all your problems have been fixed. I want to remind you that it was the Congress government which passed the Forest Rights Act.”
He also said that the Siddaramaiah government stood with the poor and the oppressed. Speaking to the Kodagu Deputy Commissioner over the phone from the protest site, he urged the DC to convene a public meeting on the Forest Rights Act.