New Delhi, Aug 26 (PTI) A federation of 17 gram sabhas from Chhattisgarh’s Udanti-Sitanadi forests has written to the Tribal Affairs Ministry, alleging illegal evictions and violations of multiple laws by tiger reserve authorities.
Queries sent to the Tribal Affairs Ministry on this matter remained unanswered.
In a letter addressed to Tribal Affairs Secretary Vibhu Nayar and other senior officials, the gram sabha representatives claimed that “several unlawful activities of the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve authorities” were violating their forest rights.
They alleged that they were being “forcefully evicted from our ancestral homelands in blatant violation of the Forest Rights Act 2006, the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996, the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989”.
The federation alleged that since 2020, authorities had been issuing arbitrary eviction notices to villages such as Sornamal, inhabited by Bhunjia, Gond and Kamar communities.
It claimed that families from Sornamal, Ichhradi and Dashpur villages were already evicted “without any compliance with the due process laid down” under the Forest Rights Act.
“For the past two years, farming has been completely banned by the tiger reserve authorities, thereby posing a grave threat to the life and survival of hundreds of families,” the letter alleged.
The federation further alleged that the tiger supplementation programme in the reserve was approved by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) without the free, prior and informed consent of local gram sabhas.
“Such irresponsible and arbitrary conservation intervention is not only in deep contravention of the Forest Rights Act and the Wildlife Protection Act but also undermines the coexistence approach to biodiversity conservation,” it said.
It also alleged that reserve authorities were “clandestinely planning to convert our community forest resource (CFR) areas into meadows for tourism development and evict more villages”, while misleading the media by claiming to have gram sabha consent.
The Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Gariaband and Dhamtari districts is one of Chhattisgarh’s three tiger reserves, created in 2009 by merging two adjoining sanctuaries.
It has been a focal point of India’s tiger reintroduction efforts, with conservation authorities moving tigers from other reserves to repopulate the area.
However, rights groups have long claimed that evictions linked to tiger reserves undermine both tribal rights and conservation goals.
The Forest Rights Act, 2006, recognises the rights of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers over land and community resources. Section 4(5) of the Act prohibits eviction until claims are settled.
In February 2019, a Supreme Court order directing the eviction of forest dwellers whose claims had been rejected triggered nationwide protests, forcing the government to halt the process.
In their latest appeal, the Udanti-Sitanadi gram sabhas urged the Tribal Affairs Ministry to intervene.
“We request your kind attention to stop these unlawful activities aimed at forcefully evicting us from our ancestral homeland while severely endangering our forest rights along with the rich biodiversity of Udanti-Sitanadi forests,” the letter claimed.
The NTCA last year asked states to speed up village relocation from core areas, sparking protests over alleged violations of the Forest Rights Act and lack of consultation with affected tribal communities.
A tiger reserve consists of two zones — the core (critical tiger habitat) and the buffer (peripheral area). According to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the core areas must remain “inviolate for the purpose of tiger conservation”. The buffer areas, in contrast, permit sustainable human activities alongside wildlife conservation.
Tribal and indigenous communities residing in the core areas say they have lived in harmony with nature and forests for generations and their livelihoods, culture and traditions are deeply connected to the forest ecosystem.
Under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, these communities are granted individual and community rights to access, manage and use forest resources, as well as live in these forests.
However, they argue that the “contentious” and “delayed” implementation of the FRA has left them vulnerable to forced eviction. PTI GVS GVS KSS KSS
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