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 Indigenous rights group Survival International says the Baiga
tribes in the Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh
state are being harassed by forest guards to leave the land
where they have lived for generations.
B.N. Dwivedi, principal chief conservator of forests and chief
wildlife warden in Chhattisgarh, said there were plans to
relocate some tribal villages that are inside the sanctuary, but
that no force was being used.
"When we evacuate some villagers from the tiger reserve, it
cannot be done without their permission, without their
acceptance, without their saying 'yes'," Dwivedi told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Raipur, the capital of
Chhattisgarh.
"The allegation that they are being relocated forcefully is not
correct and entirely incorrect."
Achanakmar covers an area of 552 sq km (213 sq miles) and is
home to numerous flora and fauna, including endangered animals
such as leopards, wild bison and the Bengal tiger.
It forms part of a tiger corridor to the neighboring Kanha
National Park, which provided the inspiration for "The Jungle
Book", Kipling's novel about an abandoned boy who is raised by
wolves in the jungle in India.
London-based Survival International said the Baiga people were
told they will have to move from their villages to a muddy
clearing outside the reserve, even though there is no evidence
their presence in the reserve is harming tigers.
In fact, it said, the number of tigers in the reserve has
reportedly risen to 28 in 2015, from 12 in 2011.
"It's illegal and immoral to target tribes, who have co-existed
with the tiger for centuries, when industrialization and
mass-scale colonial-era hunting are the real reason the tiger
became endangered," said Survival's Director Stephen Corry.
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"Big conservation organizations should be partnering with tribal
peoples, not propping up the forest departments that are guilty of
brutalizing them. Targeting tribal people harms conservation," Corry
said in a statement on Monday.
Despite a slew of "pro-poor" policies, activists say India's
economic boom has bypassed many tribal communities, who make up more
than 8 percent of its population of 1.3 billion people.
Many live in forest villages, eking out a living by farming, rearing
cattle, collecting and selling fruit and leaves.
The Forest Rights Act, a law recognizing the right of indigenous
tribes to inhabit forests where their forefathers had settled
centuries earlier, came into force in 2008.
But some environmentalists fear it has hindered conservation efforts
and encouraged the poaching of animals such as tigers.
Dwivedi said there were plans to relocate 250 Baiga families from
four villages, but all were happy to leave the reserve.
"They are in fact very much willing to go out of that place," he
said. "They want to come out from the area so that they get
schooling, hospital as well as road facilities."
(Reporting by Jatindra Dash, writing by Nita Bhalla, editing by
Alisa Tang. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the
charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news,
women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit
news.trust.org)
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