Outrage over NTCA letter urging quick forest removal from tiger zones

News Mania Desk/Piyal Chatterjee / 6th September 2024

Environment organizations from all over India have called for the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to stop ordering the “illegal” removal of villages from tiger sanctuaries.
On June 19, 2024, a notification was released that listed 89,808 families from 848 villages. It also instructed the state authorities to relocate the residents residing within the designated core regions of the tiger reserves on a “priority basis” and demanded the creation of action plans with a deadline.
The Forest Rights Act, 2006 [FRA] and The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 [WLPA] guarantee these residents’ rights to live and use forest products for their subsistence. The majority of these residents are Adivasi and members of other communities who inhabit forests.
They claimed that the removal of people from 19 tiger states may be the biggest mass relocation operation ever carried out globally, with the goal of protecting wildlife.

According to the letter that was sent to the MoEFCC, the NTCA action stated that the NTCA is pressuring state governments to relocate communities in defiance of the WLPA and FRA, therefore compelling the state governments to engage in criminal activity.
The scheduled tribes (STs) and other traditional forest dwellers (OTFDS) residing within the tiger reserves will likely clash with state officials as a result of this action, the conservationists said.

Conservationists claimed that the action violates constitutional rights and exposes these people to risks like poverty, social and economic insecurity, and disruption of their eco-cultural practices.

The group has emphasized that the WLPA forbids the supreme tiger authority from issuing any orders that infringe against the rights of the local populace, particularly the Scheduled Tribes.
It further emphasized how the judgment goes against conservation efforts for wildlife and biodiversity, which are essential to the survival of these communities.

Additionally, the conservationists asked that the Union government immediately issue an advising order requiring state authorities to recognize and transfer forest rights throughout all villages designated as tiger reserves, as well as other protected areas, in accordance with the terms of the WLPA and FRA.

“The relocation of the NTCA is in complete violation of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (as amended in 2006), the Forest Rights Act 2006, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), 1989 exhibiting a complete lack of compliance with the laws and the spirit of conservation,” the conservationists argued.