The Jenu Kuruba reoccupied ancestral homes decades after they were forced out of Nagarhole to make way for tigers
O
n a rainy weekend in the forests of southern India, dozens of Jenu Kuruba people stand under umbrellas at the entrance to the Nagarhole tiger reserve to meet tourists with a message: you are entering our home.
Their goal? To stop the safari tours that promise tourists sightings of the tigers of Nagarhole but which the Jenu Kuruba believe have commercialised the ancestral homes that they were evicted from in the name of conservation.
The Jenu Kuruba, one of India’s “scheduled tribes”, or Adivasis, known for gathering forest honey, were forced out of Nagarhole during the 1980s when it was declared a tiger reserve. They say the move stripped them of their homes and religious sites, giving them few other options except for low-paid jobs on nearby coffee plantations.
