Whenever Adivasi communities express hesitation towards public systems, be it ‘free’ healthcare or education, it is often treated as a problem of our beliefs, behaviour, or a ‘lack of awareness’. My experience as a first-generation Soliga Adivasi scholar who grew up in the forest areas of southern Karnataka’s Biligirirangana Betta (BR Hills) suggests something else, a perspective that forests and health are inseparable.

For Adivasi people, without forests there is no health. And our mistrust of the state is inextricable from the long history of dispossession to which our people have been subjected.

Forests and nature represent how food, livelihoods, freedom, and healing practices come together in everyday life. Despite this, throughout history, the rights of Adivasi communities to our homes, lands, and holy places have been denied, often under the guise of tribal development and wildlife conservation. These policies have restricted our access to the very forests and resources that sustain us, which has contributed to malnutrition, migration, disrupted schooling, and avoidable illnesses among our people, demonstrating why forests and health are inseparable.

For the last 28 years, I have been working with friends and colleagues in my community in Chamarajanagar. The district is home to the Betta Kuruba, Jenu Kuruba, and Soligapeople, who are among the 50 Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Karnataka. Of these communities, about 12 (including the Soliga) self-identify as Adivasi and have a close association with forests.

In Chamarajanagar, Adivasi communities live in and around the areas that now constitute Bandipur and Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple (BRT) tiger reserves and Male Mahadeshwara Hills and Cauvery wildlife sanctuaries.

All of these are protected forests under various wildlife protection acts that pre-date the Forest Rights Act. For years, these laws have been used by the Forest Department to keep Adivasi people away from the forests in which they have traditionally resided.

Why Forests and Health Are Inseparable: The Impact of Displacement Is Wide-Ranging and Ongoing

Our life in these podus (Soliga villages) has been marked by various agitations against adverse provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. BR Hills was first established as a wildlife sanctuary before the authorities declared it a tiger reserve. With these declarations, a ban was imposed on the collection of forest produce such as honey, nelli (Indian gooseberry/amla), antwaala kaayi (soapnut), and seege (acacia) which are part of our everyday consumption, care, and livelihood routines.

Read the full article about Adivasi people's perspectives on forests and health by C Madegowda at India Development Review.