On May 10, 2025, members of the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Adivasi Sangharsh Morcha (ASM) visited a forest area in Nagarhole, Karnataka, to express solidarity with around 52 families from the Jenu Kuruba community who had recently reclaimed their ancestral lands. This report is based on field interactions, legal documents, and secondary literature to raise awareness about the displacement, exploitation, and resistance of Adivasi communities in the region.
The roots of the conflict lie in the early 1970s, when the Indian government responded to the sharp decline in the tiger population by enacting the Wildlife Protection Act (1972). Though framed as a conservation effort, this law led to the forceful eviction of thousands of Adivasis across India, including in Nagarhole. These evictions were justified under a colonial conservation model, which falsely positioned indigenous forest dwellers as threats to biodiversity. This ignored the vital and symbiotic role Adivasi communities play in forest conservation.
Nagarhole became one of the core sites of the World Bank-funded “Eco-development Project,” which further enabled the displacement of Adivasis in the name of conservation. Between 1986 and 1988, forest officials forcibly removed the Jenu Kuruba from their settlement of Karadikallu Attarakolli Haadi, using elephants to destroy crops, burning homes, and threatening residents.
The Jenu Kuruba, among other tribes such as Betta Kuruba, Paniya, Solaga, and Yerava, have lived in the Nagarhole forest for centuries. Their name—‘Jenu’ meaning honey and ‘Kuruba’ meaning shepherds—reflects their traditional livelihood of honey collection and forest foraging. They have a deep spiritual relationship with the forest, which houses their places of worship and cremation sites. Contrary to state narratives, they coexist peacefully with wildlife and even follow a spiritual practice of indirect hunting, relying on remains left by carnivores.
The dominant Kodava community in the Kodagu region has also played a central role in displacing Adivasis. Kodavas, who own large coffee plantations, have masked their commercial interests under the guise of conservation through groups like the Coorg Wildlife Society (CWS). Displaced Adivasis are often forced into bonded labour on these plantations, earning meager wages (₹250–₹300 per day), facing exploitation, and becoming entrapped in cycles of debt. The younger generation is frequently pushed into labour to repay loans, denying them access to education. Adivasi women, in particular, suffer from gender-based exploitation and harassment.
Political and corporate interests have exacerbated the crisis. Locals allege that prominent figures such as Siddaramaiah, Jayalalitha, Tata, and Mahindra have acquired vast tracts of forest land, previously occupied by Adivasis. The state, far from being a neutral party, has enabled and enforced these land grabs through violent and oppressive means. In recent years, police and forest department personnel have been implicated in the deaths of several Adivasi men, including Basava (2021), Kariyappa (2022), and Baasti (2023), often under false accusations like poaching or smuggling.
State-run rehabilitation schemes are corrupt and inefficient. Compensation payments are either delayed or underpaid, and mandated public consultations under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) are frequently bypassed or manipulated by local authorities. Despite such repression, these communities have a history of resistance. In the 1990s, they successfully opposed a proposed resort by the Taj Group in Nagarhole. Recent years have seen a resurgence of organizing and resistance against unfair labour practices. This has also led to Adivasis being replaced with cheaper migrant workers from Assam.
On May 5, 2025, 52 Adivasi families reclaimed around 300 acres of their ancestral land, asserting their constitutional rights under the FRA, 2006, and the Right to Freedom of Religion (Articles 25–28). The response was immediate and hostile: on May 6, the state deployed police and forest guards to block access to essential supplies and harass ASHA healthcare workers. Forest officials also destroyed four of the ten makeshift huts built by the Adivasis.
These actions drew national and international condemnation. Civil society groups protested, and Survival International reached out to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Under pressure, the government agreed on a Gram Sabha on May 20, 2025, to deliberate on the Jenu Kuruba community’s land rights. The elected committee has resolved to stay on their land.
In Nagarhole and elsewhere corporate and state interests converge to dispossess indigenous communities under the pretense of development or conservation. The struggle of the Jenu Kuruba is not merely about land—it is a fight for memory, identity, dignity, and justice. As the Adivasis declare: the forest does not need to be protected from them—it needs to be protected with them. Their ongoing resistance is a owerful reminder that true development must be people-centered and rooted in justice, not profit.
