Adivasi Women Allege Assault by Forest Guards Inside Similipal Tiger Reserve; Fear Midnight Raids and Eviction

Representative Image Women from the Ho Adivasi community in Bakua village, nestled deep inside the Similipal Tiger Reserve, have alleged that they were subjected to intimidation, physical assault, and sexual abuse by forest personnel on 16 June. The incident has triggered widespread fear among villagers, who now face threats of eviction and late-night raids, activists say.

According to the Community Network Against Protected Areas (CNAPA), a coalition of forest rights groups, the violence unfolded when villagers were returning home with roofing sheets to repair their houses before the onset of monsoon. Their vehicle was stopped at a forest check gate near Khejuri village. Despite repeated pleas that carrying heavy roofing sheets on foot for eight kilometres in the rain was impossible, two forest department personnel allegedly refused entry, verbally abused the women using sexist slurs, and physically assaulted them.

Adivasi Women Allege Assault

Villagers told Karvaan India over phone that the forest guards ripped off the women’s clothes, dragged them away forcibly, and left them humiliated. “We were only trying to carry roofing sheets to protect our families from the rain,” said a woman from Bakua, requesting anonymity. “They treated us like criminals.”

Forest officials subsequently denied access to journalists and human rights defenders trying to reach Bakua in the days following the incident, villagers told Karvaan India over phone. On 17 June, the Tiger Reserve administration filed a police complaint branding villagers as “assailants” and “encroachers”. Just days later, at around 12:30 am on 21 June, armed forest personnel and police raided Bakua in an attempt to arrest male community leaders.

“Since then, the men are hiding in forests, and women are living in constant terror,” a human rights defender working in Mayurbhanj told Karvaan India over phone, requesting anonymity due to security concerns. “Women injured in the assault are unable to seek medical care or legal aid. This is a humanitarian crisis unfolding silently inside a tiger reserve.”

‘Impunity under New CRPC’

Legal experts argue that structural changes in policing laws have emboldened forest and security personnel. Speaking to Karvaan India, Venkatesh, an activist and legal researcher working on Adivasi rights, said:

“The recent changes in the Code of Criminal Procedure (2023) have effectively given security forces more powers with little accountability. In areas like Similipal, this translates to complete impunity. These forest guards do not understand constitutional mechanisms or people’s rights – to them, the only law that exists is the Wildlife Protection Act. They act as if protecting wildlife allows them to violate every human right of Adivasis.”

Broader Context: Conservation or Dispossession?

The CNAPA note describes the assault as part of a long-standing pattern of violence and dispossession in Similipal. On 24 April this year, Odisha Forest Department issued a notification to extinguish the rights of Bakua and several villages over 84,570 acres of forest land by constituting a National Park – an act activists say violates the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) 1996 and the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006.

Villagers told Karvaan India over phone that such moves were part of a systematic plan to drive them out. “We have coexisted with wildlife for centuries. Now, under the pretext of conservation, we’re being driven out to make space for tourism and other projects,” said an activist from Maa Mati Suraksha Samiti, a local rights group. “Voluntary relocation is a myth. Behind it is state violence and intimidation.”

Indeed, villagers of Bakua told Karvaan India over phone that they have repeatedly rejected relocation proposals, passing Gram Sabha resolutions against check gates, harassment, and fabricated records allegedly used to obtain forest diversion clearances. “We have lived here for generations. This forest is our life, our temple. Why should we leave it?” an elderly villager asked.

National and International Concern

Forced evictions from Tiger Reserves across India have drawn international criticism, including from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which raised alarms about violations of indigenous rights in conservation zones. Despite directives from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to halt such evictions, forest bureaucracy continues its ‘fortress conservation’ approach, activists allege.

“This is nothing short of apartheid,” said Venkatesh. “Indigenous homelands are turned into protected areas without consent, and people are uprooted violently. Even after 18 years of FRA, Adivasis are treated as encroachers on their own land.”

Demands and The Road Ahead

CNAPA and other signatories have demanded immediate registration of an FIR under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the accused forest personnel, an impartial investigation, and a halt to midnight raids and intimidation. They have also called for judicial review of Odisha’s forest and wildlife policies and formation of a high-level committee under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to assess the impacts of Similipal’s management practices.

Meanwhile, fear grips Bakua. Villagers told Karvaan India over phone that women who allege assault continue to live in trauma, while their men remain in hiding.

“Conservation here is a story of terror,” said a young woman from Bakua, speaking to Karvaan India over phone. “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We just want to live in peace in our forests, like our ancestors did.”