Tribals suspect motives behind tiger reserve move

[Debasis Bose]

Salem: Since May 2013, Rangasamy. B from Uganiyam village that falls under the newly-formed Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) has been a worried man. The tiny village where his family has lived for generations now comes under the 1,40,840 hectares of land surrounding the Moyar river that has been declared as a tiger reserve with 79,349 hectares of it declared as the core area of the reserve.

According to members of the Federation against Tiger Reserve in Sathyamangalam, an outfit that has been protesting against declaration of the area as a tiger reserve, a total of 34 villages fall under the core area of the reserve while another 43 villages are in the buffer area.

“Of the 34 villages in the core area, only seven have been exempted by the forest department from evacuation while only two of the 43 villages in the buffer area can remain where they are. This declaration of tiger reserve is nothing but a clandestine effort to relocate hundreds of tribal families that have been calling these forests their home for centuries to be able to hand it over to corporates for plundering them,” said Manuel, coordinator of the Federation against Tiger Reserve.

He points out that the tribals who have been living in these forests have never posed a threat to the wild animals and have been living harmoniously. “There is no need for them to be relocated except for dubious motives. Before declaring the tiger reserve, the government should have fully implemented the Forest Rights Act 2006 that protects tribal from losing their natural wealth i.e., forests,” says Mr Manuel.

The other organisation that has been protesting against the reserve is the Tamil Nadu Tribal People’s Association. Erode president of the association, Mr K. Ramasamy says without the implementation of Forest Rights Act, declaration of the reserve was illegal. “Besides, much of the data furnished by the forest department such as the region having a population of 11 tigers besides several other species have not been done in a scientific manner,” he says. According to him, the entire effort is to remove the tribals from their homeland.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The amount of poaching, wood felling and other illegal activities that are happening in the place is huge. One of the camera traps was uprooted and taken away by people. One can guess what kind of things that got clicked by the camera trap which made the people nervous and remove it. I have seen the images from the camera traps - beautiful healthy tigers. When I was there a few years back, I had to be content hearing alarm calls as there was no sighting. There were many pug marks as well.

Once there was the fear of the notorious smuggler cum dacoit Veerappan, so not many people were entering the forest. Unfortunately, now the situation is completely different. Not everybody staying inside and claiming to be a tribal is actually a tribal. We need to be careful about the unscrupulous misusing the provisions of the Tribal Rights Act. We need to protect this place.