The Hindu : Karnataka News : Tribal people in upbeat mood as they prepare to return to their ‘Jammas’

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Karnataka

Tribal people in upbeat mood as they prepare to return to their ‘Jammas’

Muralidhara Khajane

AMHS creating awareness on rights of tribal people through street play

LORDS OF THE FORESTS: Tribal people of Medarakolli Haadi narrating their plight.

MEDARAKOLLI HAADI (KODAGU DISTRICT): “Nanga Yaana Tappu Maadino… Eee Sarkaradavaraga…” (What have I done to the Government, to make me to suffer) sings Rama, a Jenu Kuruba of Maranakolli Haadi (tribal settlement), to narrate the plight of the people living in the forests since centuries.

This song is part of a play conceived by Aadivaasi Moolabhoota Hakkugala Sangha (AMHS) to create awareness among the tribal people on their rights.

The sangha has been staging this street play in 56 haadis within Nagarahole National Park in the past one month and asking tribal families to assert their rights in view of the implementation of Schedules Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, which facilitates recognition and vesting of forest rights and occupation of forest land to tribal people.

The sangha by staging street plays and conducting meetings inside the haadis is creating confidence among the tribal people to return to their haadis.

According to Kalinga (30) of Medarakolli Haadi, who is a member of the sangha, many families have started returning to their haadis which they left, according to him, under pressure from forest officials.

Forest officials are worried over the development as the State Government has not implemented the forest rights Act, which will accord legal rights to forest dwellers on the land they have lived for generations. The Act was notified four months ago.

In a way, the rehabilitation programme conceived by the Government is also responsible for the development. Pointing to the plight of the tribal people in various tribal rehabilitation colonies, J.K. Kala (31) of Medarakolli asks, “Why should we live in alien land away from our Jamma, without any basic amenities, while none of the promises made by the authorities have been implemented?”

Initially Nagarahole was established as a sanctuary in 1955 and was declared as national park in 1975 under the Wildlife Protection Act.

According to Srikant, a tribal activist, many tribal families who were dependent on the national park in Heggadadevankote, Hunsur, Virajpet and Periyapatna area have been displaced without any rehabilitation package. They were not given an opportunity to establish their rights in accordance with Wildlife Protection Act. As many as 3,680 families have been displaced to the periphery of their respective taluk forest borders. They are located in 90 haadis around the park.

In 1989, the Forest Department conducted a survey and came out with figures that only 1,550 families from 52 haadis are residing in the national park. They would be rehabilitated with special beneficiary-oriented package, it said.

After the national park was named after Rajiv Gandhi, the Forest Department formed boundaries and this segregated the tribal people from their natural habitats. The department also stopped allowing tribal people into the forest for collecting minor forest produce. In 1995, the tribal people launched an “Enter Forest” agitation to assert their rights.

When Development through Education (DEED) and Nagarahole Tribals Rights Restoration Committee filed public interest litigation petition in the High Court of Karnataka, the court appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Muzaffar Assadi of the Political Science Department in the University of Mysore to study the problems. The committee, which submitted its interim report in January 2006, sought extension of time to cover Virajpet area to identify the number of families displaced from the national park at various times. But the court is yet to decide on that, says Srikant.

While the issue is entangled in legal and bureaucratic exercises, the tribal people are set to return to their Jamma claiming that they are the lords of the forest as they have living there for generations. “Our ancestors were here and they named trees and worshipped gods here. We will not leave our land, but protect the forest like our ancestors did,” say Parvathi.

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