In a landmark victory, a tribe in India has for the first time had their right to use their ancestral land recognized – even though it is inside a tiger reserve.
In 1974, members of the Soliga Tribe were evicted from their homes in the Biligirirangan Hills, Karnataka state, by a local government intent on protecting the state’s wildlife. But now the Soliga’s right to collect, use and sell forest produce from within the Rangaswami Temple Sanctuary reserve has been formally confirmed.
The unprecedented move follows more than 30 years of debate in Karnataka state over how to reconcile tribal peoples’ rights with conservation. All through these years, tensions had been growing between those advocating for the rights of India’s 84 million tribal people, and those fighting for wildlife reserves to be people-free ‘wildernesses’.
As recently as January, 1500 Soliga thought they would lose their homes when the Sanctuary was re-classified as a tiger reserve in order to “protect” 30 of the big cats. This victory brings an end to fears of eviction and bans on their right to hunt and cultivate.
The Soliga insisted that removing them was not the solution, and told India’s Environment Minister to “give (them) poison”, rather than force them out. One Soliga man said, “We have been the ones that look out for tigers. You remove us and you remove the tigers.”
Under the Forest Rights Act, the Soliga will now have legal rights to use and protect as much as 60 per cent of the reserve, including parts of the core area. The Soligas are now working on a proposal to manage the tiger reserve jointly with the Karnataka state authorities, using their traditional knowledge.
About 20,000 Soligas live in Karnataka state, and have been inextricably linked to the Biligirirangan Hills for generations.
Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said on November 2, “The Indian government is beginning to realize that tribal peoples are the best conservationists, by far. If only the rest of the world could catch on. Evicting tribes’ people from their ancestral land in the name of ‘conservation’ is not only illegal and destroys them; it also spells disaster for the local environment and wildlife.”
About Survival International
Survival International is a human rights’ organization formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous people and uncontacted tribes, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples’ fight to keep their ancestral lands, culture and their own way of living. Survival works for the people who they call “some of the most vulnerable on earth”. A part of their mission is to educate people from misconceptions that help justify violations of human rights against indigenous people, and the risks that they face from the advancement of corporations, governments and also good intentions based on an idea of “development” that is forced upon them. Survival believes that in fact their alternative way of living is not lacking, they represent a model of sustainability in the environment that they are a part of and they possess a rich culture from which we could learn. For more information, visit www.survivalinternational.org.
Source: Survival International.
