Women from the Tharu tribal community, living in 46 villages of Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh, are the forefront of the fight to their community’s right to the forest. Organised under the Tharu Adivasi Mahila Mazdoor Kisan Manch (Tharu Tribal Women Workers Peasant Platform), the collective, which was formed in January 2009, demands rights as per the legal conditions under India’s Forest Rights Act, 2006. The Forest Rights Act recognises the rights of forest dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources for livelihood, habitation and other socio-cultural needs.
The tussle with the forest department has been ongoing for decades. Among the recent instances of conflict was during the Covid-19 pandemic, when, on July 1, 2020, Kajaria village in the core area of Dudhwa witnessed an attack by forest officials. Tharu women and men had been tilling the land that forest officials claimed was forest land. “Eighteen people dispatched by the forest department beat us with wooden batons. They hit my son on the head, and he began to bleed heavily. When I tried to protect him, they beat me violently and tore my clothes,” said Virmati Rana, a resident of Kajaria. They attempted to file a complaint…
