Latest news with #ForestDepartment
Time of India
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Adivasis say Project Tiger and tourism are displacing them from their ancestral land
TOI correspondent from London: Indigenous communities across India are being pushed out of their ancestral lands in the name of tourism and expansion of tiger projects whilst the laws to protect them are being diluted and not implemented properly, Adivasis told a global press briefing on Monday. 'They say India has got freedom. But I think Adivasi people have not yet got freedom,' J C Shivamma, from the Jenu Kuruba tribe, said at the online event organised by Community Network Against Protected Areas. She is among the 52 households who reoccupied their ancestral land within Nagarhole tiger reserve on May 5, 35 years after their families were forcibly evicted. 'Some of our family members died when in the plantations, but our sacred deities, our graveyard, everything that concerns us, is still in the village, so we used to go back to bury our people in our ancestral land, but it was always a fight with the forest department toconduct rituals. We consider our ancestors to be on the lands, they become deities and this way we were tortured. If we have to die, we will die on our ancestral land,' she said. Shivu JA recalled how their houses were burnt and elephants brought to destroy their fields when they were evicted from Karadikallu. 'This land is ours. It's not any tiger project or scheme of the govt for tiger conservation,' he said. 'Our elders are very happy now. We are having our food, we are going for honey collection. We have our own water resource. We sit together in the evening, and they are teaching us songs. All these songs and lessons were silenced for 40 years." 'The forest department keeps saying that only after your rights are recognised, you can live on this land. We already have these rights,' he said. The Jenu Kurubas are filing a case against the Forest Department under the SC/ST Atrocities Act for withholding their rights and filing an appeal against 39 rejected forest rights claims. 'Why are their rights not being recognised despite the notification of central legislation such as the Forest Rights Act 2006,' asked scholar Nitin Rai. 'People across the country in different states are fighting the same battles. It is important to find a way to raise a collective voice for what is happening all over,' said lawyer Lara Jesani.
The Hindu
10 hours ago
- General
- The Hindu
153 acre green space to come up soon in North Bengaluru
A 153-acre plot of forest land in Madappanahalli near Yelahanka, belonging to the Karnataka Forest Development Corporation Limited (KFDC), was handed over to the Forest Department on Monday for development into a biological park. KFDC Chairman Basavaraju Neelappa Shivannavar formally handed over the land to Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre, who said a huge biological park would be developed on that piece of land in the coming days. Mr. Khandre said that the proposed park would be a much-needed green space for north Bengaluru once developed. He said that centuries after the Lal Bagh and Cubbon Park were developed, Bengaluru would be getting a green space of this magnitude. DPR to be prepared He added that a detailed project report will be prepared in the next two months for the development of this plot following which Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar will lay the foundation stone for the park. An Indira Gandhi Biological Park, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Bird Park, Kempegowda Zoo, Saalumarada Thimmakka Arboretum among others are being planned to be set up, the minister said. The KFDC had planted Eucalyptus trees in this plot which will be cleared and local tree species along with various species of plants and trees native to the Western Ghats would also be planted. ₹20 crore sanctioned Currently, in this 153 acre plot, there are 800 trees along with Eucalyptus, they will be protected, he said. Mr. Khandre said an initial amount of ₹20 crore will be sanctioned for the construction of this park and that the entire plot has been fenced to protect it from encroachment.
The Hindu
11 hours ago
- General
- The Hindu
As monsoon sets in, adivasis of Nagarhole plan to start constructing houses
With the monsoons setting in, Jenukuruba tribal, who re-entered the forests of Nagarhole Tiger Reserve almost a month ago 'to reclaim their ancestral land', said they will begin construction of houses. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, J.A. Shivu, leader of the Nagarhole Adivasi Jammapale Hakku Sthapana Samiti, said, 'We held a gram sabha on May 20, where it was decided that we would start constructing houses. Individual forest rights surveys have already been done for the 52 families who re-entered the forest, and therefore, we know the plots that have been surveyed. So, we will start constructing the houses there, since the rains have arrived.' Case to be filed The tribal leaders also said that they are planning to file a case against the Forest Department and panchayat officials under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for withholding the rights of the people and dragging their feet on the forest rights claims raised by adivasis under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. It was a month ago that 150 tribal people entered the Nagarhole forests as a mark of protest against the delay in granting rights. Officials of the Karnataka Forest Department and the Karnataka State Tiger Protection Force (STPF) attempted to prevent this move, and tensions have been brewing in the regions since. 'The Forest Department and tiger protection force have been continuously trying to evict us out of our ancestral lands. They attempted to bring down the sacred structures we built. There were many instances where in the middle of the night they tried to bring down the three structures in which we are collectively living now,' Mr. Shivu alleged. A long wait According to Community Networks Against Protected Areas, the forest dwelling communities of Nagarhole were evicted in 1985 after it was declared a wildlife sanctuary. The indigenous population were subsequently forced to work as bonded labourers in coffee plantations. After the FRA came into effect in 2006, the tribals applied for their forest rights in 2009, and have been waiting for 16 years for the officials to act upon it. 'What has happened since 2006 has been a complete denial of those rights and a return from the promise that was made under the Forest Rights Act,' said Lara Jeswani, lawyer at Bombay High Court. She said that out of the more than three lakh claims, only 15,000 claims of individual rights had been decided. Political ecologist Nitin D. Rai alleged that adivasis were bearing the brunt of what the State needs to do to meet its financial and developmental obligations. 'Denial of forest rights comes directly from the (government's) need to increase the tiger numbers so that they can show they are doing very well on the conservation front and therefore cannot be questioned of diversion of forests and infrastructural development,' he said.
Hindustan Times
12 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
272 km fencing to curb man-animal conflict in UP: Govt
In Meerut's Simauli village, over 100 snakes emerged from a farmer's courtyard, causing panic. Villagers, alongside the farmer, killed more than 50 snakes, unaware they were protected under the Wildlife Protection Act. The Forest Department is investigating the incident and urges the public to report such occurrences instead of harming protected species.
NDTV
14 hours ago
- NDTV
Hundreds Of Snakes Crawl Out Of UP Farmer's House, Villagers Kill Over 50
Meerut: The village of Simauli here witnessed a startling sight in which over 100 live snakes crawled out of the courtyard of a farmer's house, sparking panic and fear among the locals. But fear was soon replaced with grit as the villagers joined the farmer and his family in killing over 50 snakes and burying them in a pit on Sunday night. Forest Department Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Rajesh Kumar told PTI on Monday that a team was dispatched to the spot for investigation after a video of the incident went viral on social media. However, the snakes turned out to be creatures protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. "It has come to light that snakes were killed and buried in the ground without informing the department. They are protected creatures and it is necessary to inform the Forest Department before taking any action," Kumar said. Preliminary investigations indicate that the snakes were non-poisonous, often found in water, and typically reside in locations such as drains. "The departmental team is on the spot and is interrogating the villagers," the DFO said. Mahfooz Saifi, the farmer, was preparing for bed when he spotted a snake in his courtyard. After killing it, he was alarmed to see more snakes emerging one after another. Soon, news of the incident spread through the village and a large number of locals gathered at the spot. As the snakes kept crawling out from under a ramp near the door of the farmer's house, the villagers stepped in to kill the snakes. Meanwhile, the forest department is investigating how many snakes were killed and where they were buried. They have also appealed to the public to immediately inform the forest department about any such incidents and to refrain from harming protected animals.
