Some non-governmental organisations functioning from the Western Ghats areas in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts say that the question of livelihood is one of the reasons behind youth in the tribal areas taking up Naxalism.
The tribals are being prevented from collecting Minor Forest Waste (MFW) and some farmers are also being evicted from their small agricultural or horticultural pastures in the Kudremukh National Park (KNP) area.
There is a demand from many tribal organisations and NGOs to either include the tribals as a biodiversity factor in the KNP or carve out the area without disturbing the tribal settlement.
The Rs60-crore package announced by the state government (during the tenure of Dharam Singh as chief minister) for resettling the tribals has not achieved its target and many of the tribal families with people in the impressionable age group are still in limbo. They have been prevented from going to their dwellings located inside the KNP and their livelihood has been snatched by preventing them from collecting MFW.
The KNP has an area of 66,000 hectares, covering five districts of Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, Chikmagalur, Shimoga and Udupi.
A survey conducted by Guruvainakere-based NGO Nagarika Seva Trust found that there were about 6,000 tribal families living in KNP. They belong to Malekudias, Naikas, Machars and several other tribal castes and sub-castes. Many of them have small farms, not more than 2 acres, which they use for cultivation of vegetables. Others have forest land to the extent of 5 acres for which they hold pattas and grow spices and other forest produce.
They sell them in in Mangalore, Udupi and Shimoga.
The Forest Rights Bill, 2006 has adequate scope for recognising “encroached” land for the tribals. The conservationists and NGOs are studying the implications of the Bill on the tribals in the Western Ghats. They are happy that the bill needs the "informed consent" of the tribals before it becomes an act. But the clauses that express doubts on the “co-existence” of tribals with the wildlife and biodiversity worry the conservationists and NGOs working in the field of tribal welfare.
