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Information
relating to Kuno’s cheetahs is now a matter of national security, breaching
which could also adversely impact India’s relations with foreign countries.

Or, at least that’s the reason given by the Madhya Pradesh government while turning
down a right to information (RTI) request in July 2024 seeking details on the
management of the cheetahs. Bhopal-based activist Ajay Dube who filed the RTI
says, “all information about tigers is transparent, then why not about
cheetahs? Transparency is the norm in wildlife management.”

Ram
Gopal who lives in the village of Agara adjacent to Kuno park, is blissfully
unaware of any threat his livelihood poses to our national security and
diplomatic relations. He and thousands of Adivasis like him have other, more
pressing worries. 

He
recently switched to a tractor. Not because he could suddenly afford the
machine over oxen. Far from it.

“Modiji gave us an order. He said we should
not let go of our oxen. But the only grazing is in the forest [Kuno] and forest
rangers will catch and throw us in jail if we enter. So, we thought, let’s just
rent a tractor instead.”

It’s an expense Ram Gopal and his family can ill
afford. Their household income keeps them firmly below the poverty line. After
Kuno National Park became the home of cheetahs, it has caused them a severe
loss of forest-based livelihoods.

This
protected area shot into national prominence in 2022 when Acinonyx jubatus – African cheetahs – were brought in from South
Africa to stamp Narendra Modi’s image as Prime Minister of the only country
that is home to all big cats. The cheetahs were welcomed by him on his
birthday.

Curiously,
cheetah reintroduction as a conservation goal is completely absent in our
National Wildlife <a href="https://ntca.gov.in/assets/uploads/Reports/Others/Wildlife_Action_Plan_2017_31.pdf">Action Plan 2017-2031</a> that lists steps to conserve native
and highly threatened species like the Great Indian Bustard, Gangetic Dolphin,
Tibetan Antelope and others. Bringing in cheetahs was rubbished by the Supreme
Court in 2013 who asked for a ‘detailed scientific study’ of the same. 

Despite
all this, hundreds of <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/in-kuno-cheetahs-in-adivasis-out/">crores </a>has been spent in cheetah travel,
rehabilitation and publicity. 

Turning
Kuno into a cheetah safari has devastated the lives and livelihoods of Sahariya
Adivasis like Ram Gopal who depend on the forest for non-timber forest produce
(NTFP) like fruit, roots, herbs, resins and firewood. KNP covers a sizeable
area and falls within the larger Kuno Wildlife Division <a>–</a>
a total of 1,235 square kilometres.

“For
12 hours, from sunrise to sunset, I used to work at least 50 of my trees, and
return four days later to collect the resin. Earnings from my chir trees alone was 10,000 rupees a
month,” says Ram Gopal. Those 1,200 precious chir gond trees are now out of bounds for locals. When the park was
turned into a cheetah project, the trees disappeared into the new buffer zone. 

The couple, Ram Gopal and his wife Santu, both
in their thirties, cultivate a few bighas
of rain-fed land on the edge of KNP, mostly for their own consumption. “We grow
bajra [millet] which we eat, and some
of the til [sesame] and sarson [mustard] we sell,” adds Ram
Gopal. It is here that he needs to rent a tractor during the sowing season.

“Other
than the jungle we don’t have anything. We don’t even have enough water in our
fields. Now as the jungle is closed to us, we will have to migrate [for work],”
he says. An added blow is the sharp fall in the forest department’s routine
buying of tendu leaves – the state
year-round purchases of the same were an assured income for Adivasis, and as
purchases have shrunk so have Ram Gopal’s earnings.

Across
the state of Madhya Pradesh, NTFP is a lifeline for people living in and around
forests. Chief among these is chir gond
– collected through the year barring the summer months of chaith, baisakh, jaith and asadh roughly March to July. Most people
living in and around KNP are Sahariya Adivasi, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal
Group (PVTG), and 98 per cent depend on the forest for
their livelihood, says this 2022 <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/status-of-adivasi-livelihoods-2022-madhya-pradesh-and-chhattisgarh/">report</a>. 


The
village of Agara is an important trading hub for locals who bring forest
produce to sell to traders like Raju Tiwari. Before the forest was closed off,
says Tiwari, hundreds and hundreds of kilograms of resin and roots and herbs
would find their way into the market. 

“The Adivasi was attached to the forest, and we
were attached to the Adivasi,” is how he puts it. “Their link to the forest has
been cut and we are all feeling the repercussions.”

On a
cold January morning, Ram Gopal has left home with a few metres of coiled rope
and a sickle. The stone-walled boundaries of Kuno National Park are three
kilometres from his home in Agara, and it’s a journey he often makes. Today he
and wife are going to bring back firewood; the rope is for securing the bundle.


His
wife Santu is worried and not at all sure they will be able to get firewood
saying, “they [forest officials] don’t let you go inside sometimes. We may have
to turn around and come back.” The family say they have never been able to
afford a gas connection.

“In the old village [inside the park], the Kuno river was
there so for 12 months we had water. We could find tendu, baer, mahua, jadi bootie [roots and herbs], firewood...”
adds Santu as she strides along. 

Santu
grew up inside Kuno park and moved with her parents – part of the 16,500 people
displaced in 1999 to make it a second home for the only population of Asiatic
lions in the world, currently all housed in Gir, Gujarat. Read: <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/in-kuno-park-no-one-gets-the-lions-share/">In Kuno Park – no one
gets the lion’s share</a>

“Going forward, parivartan [change] is coming. Jangal mein jaana hi nahin [there will be no going into the jungle anymore],” says
Ram Gopal.

Although
<a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/the-scheduled-tribes-and-other-traditional-forest-dwellers-recognition-of-forest-rights-act-2006/">Forest Rights Act 2006</a> does not allow the state to snatch
land away without consent of the local people, with the arrival of the
cheetahs, the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/the-wildlife-protection-act-1972/">Wildlife (Protection)
Act 1972</a>
has kicked in. “...may  construct  such 
roads, bridges,  buildings, fences
or barrier gates…(b)shall take such steps as will ensure the security of wild
animals in the sanctuary and the preservation of the sanctuary and wild
animals.”

When
Ram Gopal first heard about the [boundary] wall, “I was told it was for a
plantation, so we thought it’s okay,” he recalls. “But after three years they
said ‘now you can’t enter. ‘Don’t enter beyond that boundary. If your animals
stray inside, you will have to pay a fine or go to jail’,” he adds. “If we
enter, we will go to jail for 20 years [we were told]. I don’t have the paisa
for it [bail],” he adds laughing.

The
loss of grazing rights has shrunk the population of cattle and locals say
cattle fairs are now a thing of the past. In the 1999 displacement, many people
left their animals behind in the park, unsure of where and how they would
manage the grazing in their new surroundings, far from the park. Even today,
cows and oxen move around the buffer zone of the park, many of them set free as
their owners can no longer graze them. There is also the fear of cattle being
attacked by forest dogs who rangers have warned, “they will find you and kill
you [if you or your animals go inside the park.”

But
such is the desperation for fuel that “chori
chupke [quietly and stealthily],” many still make furtive trips. Sagoo, a
resident of Agara is returning with a small pile of leaves and twigs she is
carrying wrapped up on her head – the only weight she says she can take now in
her sixties.  

“Jungal
main na jaane de rahe [we are not allowed into the jungle],” she says,
welcoming the questions as a chance to sit down and rest. “I will have to sell
my remaining buffaloes.”

Sagoo
says that earlier they would bring cartloads of firewood and keep it for the
rainy season. She remembers a time when their entire home was built using wood
and leaves from this very forest. “While our animals grazed, we would collect
firewood, fodder for other animals, tendu
leaves to sell.” 

The
hundreds of square kilometres are now only for the cheetahs and the tourists
who come to see them. 

In Agara village, Kashi Ram speaks for many who
have lost out saying, “nothing good has come [for us] of the cheetah’s arrival.
Only losses.”

The
villages of Chentikheda, Padri, Paira-B, Khajuri khurd and Chakparon have
bigger problems. They say a survey has been done and work has begun for a dam
on the river Kuari that will flood their homes and fields. 

“We
have been hearing about the dam for the last 20 years. Officials say, ‘you
won’t get NREGA as your villages are going to be displaced by the dam,” says
Jasram Adivasi. The former sarpanch of Chentikheda points out that many have
not got their NREGA benefits. 

Standing
on the roof of his home, the Kuari river a short distance away, he says, “the
dam will come cover this area. Our village and 7-8 villages, will drown but there
has been no notice to us yet.”

That
goes against the rules of – Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land
Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/the-right-to-fair-compensation-and-transparency-in-land-acquisition-rehabilitation-and-resettlement-act-2013/#section02">Act</a>, 2013 (LARRA ) which clearly lays
down the steps for displacement such as a social impact study with the village people. The dates for
this must be announced in the local language (Ch II A 4 (1)), notice must be
given for all to attend and so on. 

“We
were displaced 23 years ago. With great difficulty we have re-built our lives,”
says Satnam Adivasi of Chakpara village. He often goes for wage work at
construction sites in Jaipur, Gujarat and other places. 

Satnam
heard of the dam from a news story which was circulated on a WhatsApp group in
the village. “Nobody has talked to us, we don’t know who and how many will be
going under,” he adds. Officials from the revenue department noted which houses
were pukka, kuccha, how much land they occupied and so on. 

The memory of the last displacement has not
faded for his father, Sujansingh who will now be displaced twice. “Humare upar double kashth ho raha hai [We
are in for double trouble].”

Kuno's folk: missing the wood and the trees

کونو کے آدیواسیوں کو جنگل اور درخت یاد آتے ہیں

மரங்களையும் காடுகளையும் இழந்த குனோ மக்கள்

ਜੰਗਲ ਅਤੇ ਰੁੱਖਾਂ ਦੇ ਚੇਤਿਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਗੁਆਚੇ ਕੁਨੋ ਦੇ ਲੋਕ

କୁନୋ’ର ଅଧିବାସୀ: ଜଙ୍ଗଲ ଓ ଗଛକୁ ଝୁରି ହେଉଛନ୍ତି

കുനോവിലെ മനുഷ്യർ: മരങ്ങളും കാടും കാണാനാകാതെ

ಕುನೋ ಜನರು: ಕಾಡು ಮತ್ತು ಮರಗಳ ನೆನಪಿನಲ್ಲಿ

તેનાં લાકડાં અને વૃક્ષોના વિરહમાં કુનોના અસલ રહેવાસીઓ

कुनो: सुरता मं बसे रुख अऊ जंगल

आपन जमीन आ गाछ खातिर तरसत कूनो के आदिवासी

জঙ্গলের স্মৃতিটুকুই সম্বল কুনোর অরণ্যবাসীদের

জীৱিকাৰ সম্বলৰ পৰা অপসাৰিত আদিবাসী

कूनो: घर से उजड़ने का डर नहीं छोड़ रहा आदिवासियों का पीछा

Agara

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Kuno's folk: missing the wood and the trees

Thousands of Sahariya Adivasis who have lived here for centuries and depended on the forest for their livelihoods, are now banned from entering. September 2024 marks two years since the state shut them out for a cheetah safari park

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