{"id":4834,"date":"2025-07-17T19:09:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T13:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/?p=4834"},"modified":"2025-07-17T19:09:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T13:39:19","slug":"students-decry-green-colonialism-after-armed-forces-evict-adivasis-in-nagarahole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/?p=4834","title":{"rendered":"“Students Decry \u2018Green Colonialism\u2019 After Armed Forces Evict Adivasis in Nagarahole”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“This Isn\u2019t Conservation, It\u2019s Colonization”, say Student Activists: Outrage Grows as Adivasi Families Forcibly Evicted from Nagarahole Tiger Reserve<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Bengaluru | 17 July 2025:\u00a0<\/strong>Under the relentless monsoon rains, 52 Jenu Kuruba Adivasi families watched as their homes in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve were reduced to rubble. Now, their plight has ignited a firestorm of protest, with student activists in Bengaluru leading a powerful condemnation of what they call “violent conservation”\u2014a brutal displacement of indigenous communities in the name of wildlife protection.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, demonstrators from the\u00a0Community Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA)<\/strong>\u00a0staged a symbolic protest, slamming the June 18 eviction in\u00a0Karadikallu<\/strong>, where forest officials\u2014backed by over\u00a0250 armed personnel<\/strong>, including the Tiger Task Force\u2014demolished six huts, leaving families homeless during the heaviest rains of the season.<\/p>\n

“They Call Us Encroachers on Land Our Ancestors Protected”<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The evicted families had\u00a0returned to their ancestral land in May 2025<\/strong>, asserting their rights under the\u00a0Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006<\/strong>, which recognizes historical injustices against Adivasis. Instead of justice, they faced bulldozers, surveillance, and criminalization.<\/p>\n

“This isn\u2019t conservation, it\u2019s colonization,”<\/em>\u00a0said\u00a0Laxmi<\/strong>, a student protester.\u00a0“They are evicting people who have lived here for generations while allowing luxury resorts and monoculture plantations to take over the same forests.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Activists argue that\u00a0militarized conservation<\/strong>, backed by organizations like the\u00a0Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)<\/strong>\u00a0and figures such as\u00a0Ullas Karanth<\/strong>, has turned forests into battlegrounds\u2014displacing indigenous communities, replacing biodiversity with teak plantations, and prioritizing tourism over tribal rights.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s shocking that in 2025, armed forces are still destroying tribal homes,”<\/em>\u00a0said\u00a0Anu<\/strong>, a CNAPA activist.\u00a0“They used Adivasi knowledge to map these forests, and now they call them \u2018encroachers\u2019.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Six Demands for Justice<\/strong><\/h3>\n

CNAPA and allied groups have laid out urgent demands:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Withdrawal of armed forces<\/strong>\u00a0from forest areas.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Recognition of forest rights<\/strong>\u00a0under the FRA.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Implementation of the PESA Act<\/strong>\u00a0for tribal self-governance.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Appointment of members<\/strong>\u00a0to the SC\/ST Commission.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Adivasi-led conservation<\/strong>\u00a0models instead of forced evictions.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  6. \n

    Unrestricted media access<\/strong>\u00a0to Nagarahole to report on ground realities.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    “The Forest Needs Its People, Not Their Erasure”<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    As evicted families shelter under flimsy tarps, battling the monsoon, protesters stress that this fight is\u00a0not just about land\u2014but survival, dignity, and constitutional justice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    “Adivasis are not intruders\u2014they are the forest\u2019s first guardians,”<\/em>\u00a0said Laxmi.\u00a0“If conservation means destroying lives, then whose future are we really protecting?”<\/em><\/p>\n

    The question now echoes beyond Nagarahole:\u00a0How long will India\u2019s indigenous communities pay the price for \u2018conservation\u2019 that excludes them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Impactful Quotes for Social Media & Reports:<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. \n

      “This isn\u2019t conservation\u2014it\u2019s colonization. They displace Adivasis but welcome resorts and plantations.”<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Laxmi, student protester<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    2. \n

      “Shocking that in 2025, armed forces still destroy tribal homes while calling them \u2018illegal\u2019.”<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Anu, CNAPA activist<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    3. \n

      “The forest needs its people, not their erasure. Adivasis are its first guardians, not threats.”<\/strong> \u2013 Aratrika, student volunteer<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    4. \n

      “They used tribal knowledge to map these forests. Now they criminalize the same people.”<\/strong> \u2013 Junaid, CNAPA activist<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    5. \n

      “If conservation means destroying lives, whose future are we really protecting?”<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Protest banner<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      <\/div>\n

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      <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      “This Isn\u2019t Conservation, It\u2019s Colonization”, say Student Activists: Outrage Grows as Adivasi Families Forcibly Evicted from Nagarahole Tiger Reserve Bengaluru | 17 July 2025:\u00a0Under the relentless monsoon rains, 52 Jenu Kuruba Adivasi families watched as their homes in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve were reduced to rubble. Now, their plight has ignited a firestorm of protest, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bengaluru"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4837,"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions\/4837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belgaumnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}