Adivasi communities from forests across Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu have mounted a pushback against wildlife tourism and tiger reserve expansion. They accuse forest authorities and conservation groups of turning ancestral homelands into a commercial safari spectacle while evicting indigenous families and forcing them to the fringes.
Nagarhole Declaration
More than 35 Adivasi villages under the Nagarahole Adivasi Jamma Paale Hakku Sthapana Samiti of Kodagu and Mysuru issued a joint Nagarhole Declaration on Thursday. The declaration demands an immediate moratorium on all relocations from forests, stating that none were voluntary. It was preceded by a marathon community dialogue held from May 5 to 7 at Balekavu village inside Nagarahole forests, where Adivasi activists from Wayanad in northern Kerala, Muthanga wildlife region near the Kerala-Karnataka border, Sathyamangalam tiger landscape in western Tamil Nadu, and Mudumalai reserve in Nilgiris gathered to forge a common front across Western Ghats tiger territory.
Accusations Against Forest Authorities
The declaration accuses forest departments and the National Tiger Conservation Authority of usurping customary lands and turning them into a commercial spectacle. It states that what forest bureaucracy calls core area or critical tiger habitat are ancestral lands and sacred spaces of the Adivasi communities. The declaration also criticizes the Forest Rights Act of 2006, enacted to reverse historical injustices against forest communities, for failing to protect them on the ground. Instead, it says, injustice continues through safari jeeps driving over lands where ancestors walked and are buried, through conservation plans imposed on villages, and through generations trapped in bonded labor on tea and coffee estates.
Conditions of Servitude
The declaration highlights that in states like Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, which announce themselves as champions of social justice, thousands of Adivasi families remain trapped in conditions that can only be honestly described as servitude. It paints the conservation battle in stark historical terms, arguing that the violence unleashed under colonial forest laws never truly ended after Independence but merely put on a green uniform under the mask of conservation.
Demands for Self-Governance
Adivasis allege that notifications declaring national parks and tiger reserves were pushed through without following legal procedures. They demand that ancestral territories be recognized as scheduled areas under the Constitution, giving tribal communities stronger self-governance rights. The declaration claims that forest and tourism departments in the three states have no lawful authority to operate, license, or commercialize wildlife safaris on customary Adivasi lands without informed consent from Gram Sabhas. It seeks immediate suspension of all safari operations until such consent is secured.
Criticism of Conservation NGOs
The sharpest words in the declaration are aimed at wildlife NGOs backing fortress-style conservation models. It states that conservation that requires eviction of indigenous people is not conservation but colonization. Activists say the battle over forests is no longer merely about wildlife protection. It is about whether ancient indigenous footprints will survive beneath the tire tracks of booming safari tourism. JK Thimma, a Jenu Kuruba activist, said, We are the first people of this land. We are not trespassers. There is no conflict between us and animals in the forest.
Forest Rights Act Ignored
The declaration says that rights guaranteed under the Forest Rights Act, which recognizes forest dwellers as custodians of forest resources, have allegedly been ignored, leaving many Adivasi communities constitutionally invisible.
