6 days ago
Jenu Kuruba leaders refuse to call Nagarahole a tiger reserve
Mysuru: Jenu Kuruba tribal leaders from Karadikallu Atturu Kolli Haadi inside the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve in Ponnampet taluk of Kodagu district said on Monday that they will never call Nagarahole a tiger reserve.
This is not a tiger reserve. It is just Nagarahole. We were forcibly moved out of our soil in the name of forest-tiger protection, Shivu JA, JK Timma, and Shivamma said.
Speaking at a press meet organised by the Nagarahole Indigenous Land Assertion Committee, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and Communities Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA), they alleged that those who don't know anything about the forest are encroaching on the forests in the name of conservation.
Shivu stated that all the 52 Jenu Kuruba families now staying in their ancestral land are happy with what is available inside the forest now. "For decades, we were made to struggle in the lane houses," he said. He alleged that forest department officials misused the provisions of the law to displace them.
Timma recollected his experience with a tiger conservation project where he demonstrated his understanding of the forest.
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"Unfortunately, those who don't know anything about the forest and wild animals are allowed to encroach on the forests while those who know the forest are sent out of the forests," he charged.
He alleged that the tiger conservation projects resulted in the death of tigers.
Shivamma urged govt agencies not to displace them as they are leading a real life in their own hamlets.
Nitin Rai, an independent scholar who has looked at the socio-ecological impacts of wildlife conservation, and Pranab Doley, a community leader from the Mising community, Kaziranga, Assam, and convener of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Committee, who is also the founding member of CNAPA, spoke during the press meet.
Rai alleged that govt agencies are misusing the increase in the number of tigers to dilute the forest laws for the benefit of mining and other activities.
