Tribal forum seeks rehabilitation measures in Karnataka State Budget

‘Government is duty-bound to implement recommendations of Muzaffar Assadi report on Nagarahole tribals’

The organisation also wants the government to carry out similar surveys on other tribal communities in the State.— File Photo

The Tribal Joint Action Forum of Karnataka has urged the State government to implement the Prof. Muzaffar Assadi report on the rehabilitation of tribals of Nagarahole and make due provisions for it in the forthcoming Budget.

It also demanded similar surveys on the status of other tribal communities in the State and announce rehabilitation measures for them.

As many as 3,418 tribal families were reportedly displaced from Nagarahole in the early 1970s but successive Governments had failed to improve their lot, said S. Sreekant, State convener of the forum.

H.D. Kote saw 1,801 families displaced as per the report while Hunsur taluk witnessed the displacement of 1,106 families.

The report was submitted in August, 2014, but the government had only convened a meeting last November.

The forum listed a few salient recommendations of the report, which included allotment of 5 acres of land to each family and taking up a survey to ascertain the socio-economic condition of tribal communities.

It has also sought internal reservation for tribal communities, the development of ashram tribal schools on the lines of Navodaya schools and taking up initiatives to establish a tribal university to document and propagate tribal culture and practices.

Mr. Sreekant said that one of their key demands was reservation for tribal communities in elected bodies, including the taluk and zilla panchayat. “There are 34 major recommendations in the report and the government was duty-bound to implement them,” said Mr. Sreekant. A writ petition was filed by Mr. Sreekant in the High Court contending that nearly 23,000 tribals in Nagarahole Park were evicted over the years from the time of the enaction of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 till August 23, 1992, when the area was declared as a national park.

But the State government disputed the figures following which the High Court appointed a three-man committee, under Prof. Muzaffar Assadi, Chairman, Department of Studies in Political Science, University of Mysore, to study the issue and submit a report.

The forum has threatened to launch an agitation if the State Government failed to announce measures for their rehabilitation in the Budget.