The Karnataka government has moved a Contempt of Court petition at the Karnataka High Court against 39 Jenu Kuruba families in Nagarahole, accusing them of violating an interim order issued by the High Court in 2025.
The petition filed by Chief Secretary Shalini Rajaneesh and other government officials alleges that the tribal families have set up encampments inside the Nalkeri reserve forest, which forms part of the core/critical tiger habitat of Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, and claims this is in violation of the court order.
‘Six new tents’
Following a writ petition filed by one J.R. Ravi and others seeking urgent intervention ‘against the rejection of their individual forest rights claims under the Forest Rights Act (2006) and the continued attempts to dispossess them from their ancestral place, Karadikallu Atturu Kolli haadi (forest village), located in the Nagarahole Forest’, the High Court had issued an interim order of status quo in July 2025.
The order directed the petitioners not to put up any permanent structures and instructed both the petitioners and the government to maintain status quo as of the order date.
According to the government’s claims, the community members built six new encampments in May 2026. The petition also accuses them of attempting to grab valuable government property and disturbing ecological balance by destroying vegetation and cutting trees inside the Reserved Forest.
‘Only makeshift tents for protection from rains’
The Nagarhole Adivasi Jamma Paale Hakku Sthapana Samithi has decried the government’s move, terming it a ‘perversion of justice’ and ‘bureaucratic highhandedness.’
Highlighting that the 39 families accused by the government of contempt of court are from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) in Karnataka, the Samiti claimed that they have been following a strictly Constitutional Path to claim and safeguard their rights.
“Since May 5, 2025, the families of Karadikallu have been living together in a communal setting on their ancestral land because of this status quo order on July 18, 2025, albeit stripped of their basic right to shelter, life and fundamental human rights,” a statement from the organisation said.
According to them, in May 2026, ahead of the monsoons, which bring torrential rains to the Kodagu region, the families reworked their temporary shelters in which they had been staying.
“These are makeshift tarpaulin tents, solely to protect infants, elderly members and women from the harsh monsoon rains of Kodagu,” the statement said.
The photos submitted by the government as part of the petition also show structures that seem like temporary tents.
“Yet, in a display of utter malice and hostility, the Congress administration and its State Forest Department have chosen to interpret this survival measure as a violation of status quo,” the Samiti said.
The matter is listed for a hearing on November 19.
Rights vs conservation
According to tribal community members in the region, families who inhabited the forest were forced out by the Forest Department into nearby coffee plantations to work as daily wage labourers, in 1983-84.
On May 5, 2025, several tribal families re-entered the forest, claiming that they had been waiting for years for the Government to approve their claims under FRA. This resulted in tensions between the community and the Forest Department officials. In the same year, the community members filed a writ petition with the Karnataka High Court.
Published – November 10, 2026 05:45 pm IST
