Jenu Kuruba protest at green convention

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Jenu Kuruba of Nag arhole staged a protest against the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a non-governmental organisation and a key organiser of the Green Literature Festival held at Bengaluru International Centre (BIC) on Sunday.

They alleged that they have faced harassment, violence and forced evictions in the name of conservation funded by large conservation NGOs. The Jenu Kuruba tribe, which traditionally gathers honey and other forest produce, has lived within the Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka for generations.

However, hundreds from the community have been evicted after authorities designated the park as a tiger reserve in 1999 and dismissed their claims for land rights under a 2006 federal law designed to protect them.

The Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 has the objective to provide relief to tribals by recognising the right of at least 150 million of them to inhabit and live off about 40 million hectares of forest land. While states have been slow to implement the law, wildlife organisations and a handful of conservationists had filed a lawsuit against the FRA, claiming that it had caused deforestation and destroyed wildlife.

A member from the community staging protest at BIC can be seen in a video, “The conservation methods adapted by the WWF and other NGOs have entirely rid tribes from having a dialogue or say.” The Jenu Kurubas have consistently maintained their narrative and said that they want to reside in the land of their ancestors.

They have also said that they possess traditional knowledge to take care of forest and animals and they would never destroy what is considered sacred to them. Protestors also brought light to the death of Cariappa, a member of the Jenu Kuruba tribe who resided in H D Kote was allegedly brutally beaten and harassed by Forest Department officials on suspicion of selling deer meat, succumbing to his injuries on 13 October.

“Indigenous communities are the best caretakers and frontline defenders of the environment. Conservation must celebrate and not evict and harass them. Down with false narratives of conservation and concealing the mistreatment of tribal communities in its name. Give adivasis the rights to their jal, jangal, jameen,” said Fridays For Future, a people’s initiative for climate justice who backed the tribal community in their protest.