Jenu Kuruba Adivasi families reclaim ancestral lands in Nagarahole after four decades

By A Representative 

On May 5, 2025, 52 families of the Jenu Kuruba Adivasi community returned to their ancestral village, Karadikallu Aturu Kolli, located in the Nagarahole forests of Karnataka, four decades after their eviction by the state Forest Department.

The evictions, which began in the 1980s, were carried out during the creation of the Nagarahole National Park in 1988 and the subsequent Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in 1999. According to statements by the organisers of a press conference held on June 2, the evicted families had been forced into labour in coffee plantations outside the park boundary.

Following their return, the families reportedly faced multiple eviction attempts by forest and wildlife officials. On May 14, the Forest Department installed a signboard at the village entrance citing Section 27 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which declares trespassing in a tiger reserve a punishable offence.

Despite this, the Jenu Kuruba families held a Gram Sabha (village council meeting) on May 20, reportedly the first in 40 years at the site. During the meeting, the community resolved to begin rebuilding traditional huts and reaffirmed their rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, and the Indian Constitution. A signboard was erected next to the Forest Department’s, declaring: “Under Section 9 of the Forest Rights Act 2006: Our forests, our lands, our rule.”

Organisations including the Nagarahole Indigenous Land Assertion Committee, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and the Communities Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA) jointly organised a virtual press conference on June 2 to highlight the issue. Speakers included members of the Jenu Kuruba community, legal experts, researchers, and activists. They raised concerns about the conservation model followed in India, which, they said, has led to widespread displacement of forest-dwelling communities.

The press conference was addressed by JA Shivu, Jenu Kuruba community leader from Nagarahole and President of the Karadikallu Gram Sabha, who is also a founding member of CNAPA; JK Putti, a Jenu Kuruba community elder and women’s leader from Karadikallu; Lara Jesani, a constitutional, human rights and environmental lawyer practising at the Bombay High Court and member of PUCL; and Nitin Rai, an independent scholar specialising in the political ecology of tiger conservation in India. The session was moderated by Pranab Doley, a Mising community leader from Kaziranga, Assam, and convenor of the Greater Kaziranga Land & Human Rights Committee, who is also a founding member of CNAPA.

The organisers cited the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) directive issued on June 19, 2024, which called for the expedited relocation of villages from tiger reserves. They stated that nearly 65,000 families could face eviction as a result. On May 12, 2025, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed concern about the potential for large-scale displacement of Indigenous peoples from forests in India.

The press conference aimed to bring attention to what the organisers described as the “fortress conservation” approach in India, under which forests are cleared of human habitation to make way for wildlife protection and ecotourism. They argued that such practices overlook the historical presence and role of Indigenous communities in maintaining forest ecosystems.