Tribespeople illegally evicted from ‘Jungle Book’ tiger reserve 14 January 2015 [image: Tribal peoples like the Baiga are the best conservationists. But they face eviction from their ancestral homelands in the name of tiger conservation.] <http://assets.survivalinternational.org/pictures/8910/ind-bai-s-2013-07_screen.jpg> Tribal peoples like the Baiga are the best conservationists. But they face eviction from their ancestral homelands in the name of tiger conservation. © Survival International
Tribal people have been forcibly and illegally evicted from India’s Kanha Tiger Reserve – home of Kipling’s The Jungle Book – in the name of tiger conservation. Across India, many more face a similar threat <http://www.survivalinternational.org//about/tigers>. Evicted tribespeople report that the Forest Department threatened to release elephants to trample their houses and crops if they did not leave immediately. The area is the ancestral home of the Baiga and Gond tribes, who face a desperate future without their forests <http://www.survivalinternational.org/progresscankill>. The families were harassed for years to leave the reserve. When they were finally evicted, they received no land or help in establishing their lives outside. Months after their eviction, families report that they have received only a fraction of the compensation they were expecting – others have received nothing. “We got some money, but we are lost – wandering in search of land. Here there is only sadness. We need the jungle,” a tribesperson evicted from Jholar village in Kanha said. [image: This man’s whole community was evicted from Kanha Tiger Reserve. Villagers report that guards threatened to release elephants on them.] <http://assets.survivalinternational.org/pictures/3495/ind-bai-uh-2012-01_screen.jpg> This man’s whole community was evicted from Kanha Tiger Reserve. Villagers report that guards threatened to release elephants on them. © Survival The communities have now been scattered among the surrounding villages. Their rights to stay in, live from, and protect their forests are enshrined in Indian law. One Baiga man told Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, before the eviction, “They want to give us money. We don’t want money. We want land. Money doesn’t mean anything to us. It comes and it goes.” *Watch moving interviews with the residents of Jholar village in Kanha tiger reserve, who have now been evicted (filmed in 2012):* Tribal families evicted for “tiger conservation” <http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/baiga>Moving first-hand accounts by the residents of Jholar village in Kanha tiger reserve, who have now been evicted (filmed in 2012) Survival has written to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), which has been providing infrastructural support, training and equipment for frontline Forest Department staff. Tribal peoples are the best conservationists. Survival’s "Parks Need Peoples" <http://www.survivalinternational.org/parks> campaign challenges the current model of conservation. Conservation programs must stick to international law, protect tribal peoples’ rights to their lands, ask them what help they need in protecting their lands, listen to them, and then be prepared to back them up as much as they can. [image: While tribal people have been illegally evicted from Kanha Tiger Reserve – home of the 'Jungle Book' – tourists are welcomed in.] <http://assets.survivalinternational.org/pictures/9750/royal-bengal-tiger-kanha-cut_screen.jpg> While tribal people have been illegally evicted from Kanha Tiger Reserve – home of the 'Jungle Book' – tourists are welcomed in. © Survival Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “What’s happening in Kanha epitomizes the ugly side of the conservation industry – thousands of tourists career through the park in noisy jeeps, clamoring to take photos of the beleaguered tigers. Meanwhile, Baiga communities that have carefully managed the tiger’s habitat over generations are annihilated by forced evictions. The irony appears to be lost on the conservationists. If India doesn’t allow the Baiga and Gond to return and prevent further villagers being kicked out, these communities will be completely destroyed. Evicting tribes won’t save the tiger.” *Notes to editors:* - In a similar eviction in December 2013, 32 Khadia families were moved out of Similipal Tiger Reserve <http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10239> in Odisha state and were living in dire conditions under plastic sheets. They have not received the compensation they were promised. - Read Survival’s letter to WWF <http://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/1344/141218lettertowwfindia.pdf> (pdf, 454 KB) - Read Survival’s letter to the National Tiger Conservation Authority concerning the illegal evictions from Kanha and Similipal Tiger Reserves <http://assets.survivalinternational.org/documents/1345/150112-letter-ntca.pdf> (pdf, 482 KB) - Indian and international law require that the authorities must prove to the communities that their co-existence with the wildlife is impossible; that communities’ forest rights are processed; and that they have given their free, prior and informed consent to the move. None of these conditions were fulfilled in Kanha. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Biodiversity mechanism, Engineering & Management concepts, Health & Medicine science, Agricultural & Plant science, Human Values, art & handicrafts, music & dance all are Embeded in Tribal Culture. Todays urgent need to preserve this traditional knowledge to save our planet, Natuer & people. Lets do it together Subscribe AYUSH YouTube Channel (Viewed 2,08,218+ minutes): http://www.youtube.com/user/adiyuva?sub_confirmation=1 Learn More about AYUSH online at : http://www.adiyuva.in/2013/10/ayush.html --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AYUSH | adivasi yuva shakti" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to adiyuva+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to adiyuva@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/adiyuva. 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