Undeterred by the Forest Department’s threats, Karadikallu conducts Gram Sabha successfully
By Joint Press Release
On 20th May 2025, 52 Jenu Kuruba families of Karadikallu Attur Koli Haadi in the Nagarahole Forests of Kodagu District, conducted a Gram Sabha as part of their continuing effort to assert their ancestral rights under the Forest Rights Act 2006. It may be recalled that on 5th May 2025, 52 Jenu Kuruba Adivasi families returned to reclaim their ancestral land, 40 years after they were violently evicted by the Forest Department, and forced into bonded labour on coffee plantations. Ever since, the Forest Department and Tiger Reserve authorities have been relentlessly attempting to evict them from Karadikallu. The Gram Sabha was attended by over 100 people, consisting of Karadikallu villagers, Forest Rights Committee (FRC) members from nearby villages, including Tattekere, Balekovvu, Nagarahole Gadde Haadi and Nanachi Gadde Haadi, along with leaders of Nagarahole Adivasi Jammapale Hakku Sthapana Samiti, Rajyamoola Adivasi Vedike, and Budakattu Krishikara Sangha. The Panchayati Development Officer (PDO) was invited, but he did not attend and instead deputed two officials of K Badage Panchayat and ITDP. The meeting was presided over by J.A. Shivu, president of Karadikallu Forest Rights Committee.
The Gram Sabha started at 11 am and concluded by 2:30 pm. It was followed by lunch, and just as the villagers were having their lunch, a team of Forest Department officials, led by Range Officer (Nagarahole range) H M Manjunatha and Deputy Range Officer (Nagarahole Range) Naveen Rowth, along with six forest guards, barged in. They entered the sacred space of the village with their shoes on, even after repeatedly being told by the women of the village not to do so. The forest officers accused the Forest Rights Committee (FRC) leaders of inviting ‘outsiders’ to the Gram Sabha and asked these people to come to the Nagarahole Range office. The leaders countered by showing an official letter from the FRC inviting a few legal and media representatives to witness the proceedings of the Gram Sabha. The women of Karadikallu retorted that if their invitees should be treated as trespassers, then all the safari tourists that the tiger reserve officials have been entertaining should also be treated as trespassers. The women then insisted that if anyone is asked to go to the Range Office, then every single person who attended the Gram Sabha would have to go with them. They asked the Range Officer and Deputy Range Officer to get out of their jeep, insisting that if everyone must go walking, the officers cannot go in vehicles.
Further, the FRC leaders reminded the officers that the Forest Department has no role in the Gram Sabha, and it is not the community’s responsibility to notify them. The PDO’s office had already been informed as per procedure.
This escalated into an argument that went on for an hour. The families challenged the officers on their knowledge of different sections of the Forest Rights Act, and it became clear that the officers were entirely unaware of the legal provisions based on which the residents of Karadikallu Haadi are asserting their ancestral rights. The forest officers were repeatedly saying that only when the IFR claims of the families were approved could they reclaim their land. This, too, is a deliberate misrepresentation of the law. Once claims are submitted under the FRA, for recognition of pre-existing rights, the families have the right to convene Gram Sabhas and process their claims. Ultimately, the community showed that the officers had no ground to stand on, so they had no choice but to leave.
Before the disruption by the forest officers, the Karadikallu Gram Sabha had been able to complete discussion of the day’s agenda with active participation of all members present. The Gram Sabha began by discussing the deliberate pendency of recognition of IFR, CFR, and CFRR claims filed by the 52 families of Karadikallu, the actions taken by the Forest Department since 5th May, and the 4-decade history of forest officials threatening community members and obstructing them from exercising their legal rights.
In his introductory speech, JA Shivu shared that a joint survey was conducted on 28th and 29th October 2024, as per procedure laid out under FRA 2006, where officials of the Forest Department, Revenue Department, Social Welfare Department, ITDP and K.Badaga Panchayat collectively verified and mapped GPS coordinates for the 52 IFR claims filed in 2021 and 2023. Despite the completion of this survey, there has been no progress with the recognition of rights. The Departments have failed to respond within the stipulated 3-month time limit. Further, the PDO deliberately withheld the reports of the survey from the Karadikallu FRC and Gram Sabha, yet forwarded the same to the Forest Department, in violation of due process of law. The Forest Department arbitrarily refused to consider the claims of 13 of these families, citing that only previously rejected claims would be considered for the applied re-evaluation, and new claims filed in 2023 could not be entertained. This is a flagrant misinterpretation of Section 11 (1), (2), Section 12 and Section 4 (1) of the FRA. The 39 remaining claims have been forwarded directly from the PDO to the SDLC and ITDP, without sharing the reports with the community. The FRC has come to know that the survey mapping reports for Karadikallu have been overwritten by the Forest Department, claiming that there is no evidence that the forest land had ever been used for living or cultivating. This malafide practice has been a pattern of the Forest Department with regard to the recognition of claims filed by Kanturu and Balekovvu Haadis as well. The Gram Sabha resolved to file a legal complaint under Section 7 and Section 8 of FRA and Section 3 1 (g) of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against the PDO, RFO, DRFO and ACF for the criminal act of signing the overwritten Joint Survey Reports and attempting to delegitimize the ancestral forest rights of the Jenu Kuruba families as well as withholding recognition of rights.
The Karadikallu FRC has also filed CFR and CFRR claims, for which the process of Joint Survey is yet to be initiated. On enquiring, the FRC was told by the PDO that this process can only begin after the completion of the recognition process for IFR claims. However, no such rule exists. The Gram Sabha, therefore, resolved that Karadikallu FRC would be writing to the
SDLC and DLC by 26th May 2025 to ask for an explanation of the delay in the Joint Survey process. Further, the Gram Sabha would self-initiate the Joint Survey process for CFR and CFRR claims by issuing a notice to the concerned departments.
The FRC President read out the Ministry of Tribal Affairs’ recent directive to the Principal Secretary, Tribal Welfare Department, Karnataka, asking him to look into the matter of rights violations at Karadikallu and resolve them at the earliest. Responding to this letter, the Gram Sabha resolved to submit a detailed response to MoTA and the State Level Monitoring Committee, providing evidence of all the violations of the FRA 2006 and WLPA 1972 by officials in Nagarahole, and seek redressal.
In an exercise of their ancestral as well as constitutional rights, the Karadikallu Gram Sabha resolved to start setting up their traditional homes in the Haadi.
On 14th May 2025, the Forest Department put up a board at the entrance to Karadikallu Haadi, which stated, “As per Section 27 of WLPA 1972, trespassing in a Tiger Reserve is a punishable offence”. At the conclusion of the Gram Sabha on 20th May, the families of Karadikallu put up an FRC board with the names of all its members. They also put up a second board next to the Forest Department’s, declaring their rights under FRA 2006 and WLPA 1972 and the Indian Constitution, stating:
“Under Section 9 of the Forest Rights Act 2006: “Our forests, our lands, our rule”. “Nagarahole Tiger Reserve has been declared illegally, and no due process has been followed. The Karadikallu Attur Kolli Haadi Gram Sabha has passed a resolution in this regard on 30/6/2023. The adjacent signboard is in violation of Sections 4 (2) and 4 (5) of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and Section 38 (v) and 38 0 (2) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. It. is in violation of Articles 14, 19 (1)(g), and 21 of Fundamental Rights and 300 A of the Constitution of India. You are now on Jenu Kuruba land. All should intimate the Karadikallu Attur Kolli Gram Sabha before entering the village. Signed, Karadikallu Attur Koli Haadi Gram Sabha, 20/5/2025.”
The counter board was necessitated by the FD’s devious attempt to restrict community leaders, supporters and media from accessing these lands. The FD’s board was an attempt to unlawfully gain control over Karadikallu lands and brand the villagers as trespassers.
Also, 20th May has been declared by the United Nations (UN) as ‘World Bee Day’ to recognise the critical role of bees in safeguarding food production cycles and biodiversity. For the Jenu Kuruba, wherein Jenu means honey and Kuruba means forest people, bees are sacred, and conservation of bee habitats is at the foundation of their conservation values and ethics. It is a disastrous contradiction that the conservation model based on extraction and dislocation (of people, animals and forests) has contributed to exterminating several species of bees due to the usage of chemical fertilisers, poisonous pesticides, plantation of non-native species and promotion of tourism in bee habitats. As the Karadikallu FRC President stated, “it is unfortunate that the UN has neither consulted indigenous peoples conserving bee habitats on the choice of date nor held governments accountable for violently evicting indigenous beekeepers from their bee habitats.
Joint press release by:
Nagarahole Adivasi Jamma Pale Hakku Sthapna Samiti, Nagarahole
National Adivasi Alliance, India
Rajyamoola Adivasi Vedike, Karnataka
Community Network Against Protected Areas, India