The NGO condemns the forced eviction of tribal communities in India

New Delhi, May 26 (EFE) .- Survival International, a non-governmental organization, on Thursday condemned what authorities say was a voluntary relocation of tribal communities living in LTTE strongholds in India. .

“Genuine clerics have been illegally evicted and forced to live distrustful lives in resettlement camps. They are being denied even the constitutional right to practice their religion,” said Sophie Crick, a spokeswoman for the organization, in a statement.

This research exposes the “reality of forest conservation,” which has destroyed the lives of indigenous peoples in Africa and Asia in “colonial-style conservation,” he added.

Survival International reached this conclusion after interviewing Genu Kuruba tribesmen who lived in the Nagercoil Tiger Reserve in the state of South Karnataka until 1999. For generations.

The so-called aboriginal tribes in India said they had been “threatened and persecuted” by forest officials, who were destroying their crops and driving them out of the forest.

However, the Government of India rejects this claim, calling for the action voluntarily and rejecting its land ownership claims under the 2006 Federal Act.

The Forest Department of India has been conducting frequent eviction campaigns against tribal communities in various parts of the country for logging or coal mining projects.

Protect them from animals

These movements have the support of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which in the case of the Genu Kurupa tribe has stressed that it will help protect them from endangered wildlife.

Denied by the tribe, the 50-year-old Ganguma, who relocated to a nearby camp in 2018, is now asking to return to the jungle.

“Let’s go back. We do not need anything from you. Inheritance can live alone in the woods. Tigers and elephants do not attack us because they are our own family. ”

According to the report, the government failed to deliver on the promises made at the time regarding the relocation of Genu Kuruba, and failed to provide many with the “three acres of land promised to them”.

“The new houses are camps to kill us, kill our roots in the jungle, kill our culture and kill our sacred deities,” said Genu Kuruba senior “resettled” 100km away from the reserve in 2014.

Moreover, by not allowing them to return to their native lands, the forest department has usurped the right to continue worshiping the aboriginal deities.

The Nagercoil Tiger Reserve was established in 1983 to co-ordinate the territory of the Zenu Kuruba and other tribes. EFE is now one of the most popular safari destinations in India for locating this cat

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