MADIKERI (Karnataka, India): Dozens of Jenu Kuruba Adivasi families have re-entered the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka to reclaim ancestral land from which they were displaced nearly 40 years ago, intensifying a long-running conflict over forest rights and conservation policy. Around 52 families from the Karadikallu Atturu Kolli hamlet marched into the protected forest last year, erecting makeshift huts and shrines to signal their determination to remain and assert their claims under India’s Forest Rights Act. They say the state’s conservation model has long excluded them from decision-making and denied their legal rights as forest dwellers.
The Jenu Kurubas, one of India’s classified particularly vulnerable tribal groups, allege that they were forced out of their homes in the 1980s when Nagarhole was designated a tiger reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act. Displaced families were pushed into low-wage labor, including work on coffee plantations surrounding the forest, and have struggled for decades to secure formal recognition of their rights to forest land and resources. Their claim encompasses rights to habitation, cultivation and access to traditional forest produce.
Efforts to legalize their claims have been slow and contested. Joint verification processes involving forest, revenue, tribal welfare and panchayat officials have been delayed, and applications under the Forest Rights Act submitted by the families were recently rejected by a sub-divisional committee, which ruled their entry into the protected forest was illegal. Appeals are pending at higher committees and the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of the case, calling for a thorough investigation of alleged procedural lapses.
The community has framed its action as a protest against what it describes as exclusionary conservation that prioritizes tourism and wildlife protection over Indigenous Peoples’ livelihoods and cultural survival. Leaders have criticized tiger safaris and eco-tourism infrastructure within the reserve, arguing that these commercial activities encroach on lands historically inhabited and stewarded by tribal communities. They say the state labels them as “encroachers” while granting concessions to operators inside the same forests.
The dispute has seen confrontations with authorities. In mid-June last year, forest officials, backed by police, dismantled several of the newly built shelters, citing legal prohibitions against structures in core wildlife zones. Community members resisting the removal were reportedly pushed and verbally abused during the operation. The state has maintained that recognizing individual land rights in ecologically sensitive zones could heighten wildlife conflict and undermine conservation objectives.
At the same time, the Jenu Kurubas have organized Gram Sabha meetings and marches to raise awareness of their cause among neighboring villages and to press for official engagement. Leaders have warned of escalating actions, including plans to block forest check-posts if authorities refuse to hold a comprehensive public meeting to address their demands. Their campaign forms part of broader resistance by Indigenous groups across India, who contend that displacement in the name of conservation has frequently violated legal protections afforded under the Forest Rights Act and ignored centuries of traditional forest stewardship.
The reoccupation of ancestral lands by the Jenu Kuruba marks a significant flashpoint in debates over forest governance, Indigenous rights and wildlife conservation in India, with legal, social and ecological implications still unfolding. Their presence in the reserve continues as both sides await further legal and administrative developments.
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