Adivasis says that project tigers and tourism are displacing them from their ancestral land. Bharat News

TOI correspondent from London: Indigenous communities across India are being pushed out of their ancestral land in the name of tourism and laws are being diluted and not being implemented properly to save them, Edivesis told a global press briefing on Monday.“They say that India has gained independence. But I think the tribal people have not yet gained independence,” JC Shivamma, JC Kuruba tribe, JC Shivamma said at an online program organized by the community network against protected areas.He is one of the 52 houses that rebuilt their ancestral land within the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve on 5 May when their families were forcibly evacuated.“Some of our family members died when in plantation, but our holy deity, our cemetery, whatever we concern us is still in the village, so we used to go back to our ancestral land to bury our ancestral land, but it was always a fight with the forest department with rituals. We consider our ancestors on the ground, they become deities and thus we were tortured. If we want to die, we will die on our ancestral land, ”he said.Shivu Jaa recalled how his houses were burnt and elephants brought them to destroy their fields when they were evacuated from Kardikalu. “This land is ours. This is not a tiger project or plan of the government for tiger protection,” he said.“Our elders are very happy now. We are eating our food, we are going for honey collection. We have our own water resources. We sit together in the evening, and they are teaching us songs. All these songs and lessons remained silent for 40 years.”“The Forest Department keeps saying that only after your rights are recognized, you can live on this land. We already have these rights,” he said.Jenu Kuruba is registering a case against the Forest Department under the SC/ST Atrocities Act to withdraw his rights and file an appeal against the claims of 39 rejected forest rights.Scholar Nitin Rai asked, “Why his rights are not being recognized despite the notification of central law like the One Rights Act 2006.”“People from all over the country are fighting the same battle in different states. For whatever is happening, it is important to find a way to raise a collective voice,” said advocate Lara Jessney.