Award-winning musician Anoushka Shankar has narrated a new campaigning film highlighting Indigenous opposition to coal mining in the Hasdeo Forest, India.

Shankar, a seven-time Grammy nominee and multi-award winner, is lending her voice to the growing Adivasi (Indigenous) campaign in India to prevent further coal mining in the unique Hasdeo Forest, Chhattisgarh, home to 20,000 Adivasi people.

At least two enormous open-pit coal mines are already established in the Forest, but there are plans for three new mining projects there.

The Adivasi communities in Hasdeo have resisted the mines for 10 years, during which time their leaders have faced threats and false charges and their demands have been ignored, despite the community marching 300km to the state capital, and having sat in continuous protest in the Forest for over 100 days.

Recently Rahul Gandhi, a senior figure in the opposition Congress Party, said that the Adivasi protests are “justified; that he “has a problem” with mining the Forest; and that he “does not defend” it.

The three proposed new mines were recently put on “indefinite hold” in a major victory for the Adivasi campaign. However, they have not been cancelled, and the rights of Indigenous peoples, enshrined in Indian law, to withhold their consent for mining have still not been recognized by the authorities.

Anoushka Shankar said today: “The people of Hasdeo Forest are an inspiration to us all to stand firm and to defend that which is most precious. Their land is everything to them – it is their Mother, their god and their life, and they are utterly determined to protect it.

“The Adivasi women of Hasdeo are placing their bodies in front of the trees they love. I’m honoured to use my voice to help amplify their bravery in standing against the destruction of their forest and the desecration of their sacred sites. The government’s plan to sacrifice these people and their Forest for coal must be permanently stopped.”

Jo Woodman of Survival International said today: “The strength and determination of the Adivasi resistance movement in Hasdeo Forest has not wavered for a decade, and they remain united and committed to saving their Forest, getting their rights recognized and stopping any further coal mining. Until these mines are totally cancelled, and the community’s rights are fully recognized, their peaceful and just fight for Hasdeo continues – and history will be on their side.”

Anoushka Shankar is not available for interview.

Kenya Forest Service guards burning Sengwer houses in Embobut forest, 10 July 2020. © Elias Kimaiyo

In a letter released today by Survival International, the Sengwer people from Kenya appeal to the Western public “to stop funding conservation projects that are stealing our land and destroying our life… If you want to do conservation, the first thing you must do is to secure land tenure for us, the Sengwer, and other Indigenous Peoples. Without our rights respected there can’t be any forest left.”

“This model of nature protection that you fund comes from colonial times and will lead to genocide… We urge you to stop funding violations of Indigenous ways of life, which are sustainable and respectful of the environment. Instead, work with us to protect our forest, by protecting our rights. And this not only for us, the Sengwer, but for all communities in Kenya and also in the rest of the world.”

The letter follows days of violence in Loliondo, N. Tanzania, as the authorities try to evict thousands of Maasai people to make way for trophy hunting and luxury tourism.

This appeal is echoed by Indigenous people from across East Africa who are speaking out against racist and colonial conservation projects.

The Frankfurt Zoological Society, The Nature Conservancy and other big conservation organizations, as well as the EU, and the German, French and US governments, are major funders of conservation programs that involve the creation and support of Protected Areas on the ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples, who are then evicted and abused.

Among the Indigenous people denouncing the impact of conservation projects on their lives are:

• The Borana (Kenya): A Borana man told Survival: “I’m asking the world, the whole world who are donating money to Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), kindly as humans, don’t bother about my color, don’t mind about my religion, but as a human being, we are tortured, we are colonized the second time, we are dying… we ask you to stop these donations to NRT. If you are human, if you are really human, please stop this.”

• The Maasai (Tanzania): A Maasai elder says: “Your money is poison to us.” “Conservation is always bad. In Maasai culture we need an open area for cattle. But since conservation started they push us into small areas and that  made a number of cattle die.” “Out of all the enemies in the world, FZS is the number one enemy of the Maasai. Because it is responsible for all Maasai evictions since we left Serengeti. They came with their ideas and their money. In Ngorongoro too, and now in this 1500km2 of land (Loliondo). Since I left Serengeti, I lost many important things. I lost Serengeti. The plains, such a good land for grazing. I loved it”.

• The Enderois (Kenya): A man who was evicted in 1973 for conservation said: “The life before was good. We had a lot of animals and our life was not restricted. Then the government came and said this has to be a conservation area and we experienced inhumanity. We were forced to go by the police and we didn’t know where to go. We were told that the role of the government was looking after wildlife and not after humans. But we were not killing the animals, we were conserving them.”

• The Ogiek (Kenya): “The government said that by evicting the communities it’s a way to restore the forest. But if the forest was left to the Ogiek, it wouldn’t be destroyed. The forest is where we belong, where there are a lot of things on which we depend.”

The recent brutality at Loliondo, when an estimated 31 Maasai were wounded and thousands fled, has prompted Survival International and the Oakland Institute to write to UNESCO and the IUCN, urging them to de-list Ngorongoro as a World Heritage Site, and to sever all ties between them and the Tanzanian government.

Fiore Longo of Survival International said today: “It’s clear now more than ever that the abuses and land theft in the name of conservation are not just being committed by “a few bad apples” – these are built into the system. If we want to save biodiversity we must respect Indigenous land rights, and fight against this colonial and racist model of conservation. As world leaders are pushing to turn 30% of the Earth into Protected Areas at the next CBD meeting in December, now is the time to let them know that this proposal is a catastrophe for tribes, for nature and for all humanity.” 

WWF has been working in the Congo Basin for over 20 years – supporting squads who have committed violent abuse against tribal people. © WWF

A landmark bill to stop US government funds financing human rights abuses in the name of conservation has cleared its first major hurdle, after the House Committee on Natural Resources approved it on Wednesday.

At present much of the US$78-91 billion a year spent on biodiversity conservation globally goes towards “fortress conservation,” which evicts and excludes Indigenous and local people from their ancestral lands and employs guards who perpetrate appalling abuses.

In recent years both WWF and WCS have channeled US taxpayers’ funds to support parks where rangers have killed, raped and tortured Indigenous people.

The new bill, “Advancing Human Rights-Centered International Conservation Act of 2022,” establishes two ground-breaking principles:

- It seeks to ensure that US Fish and Wildlife Service funding of conservation projects can no longer be used to finance gross human rights abuses.

- Conservation projects must have the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous people for new or expanded National Parks or other Protected Areas on their lands, in order to receive US government funding.

The legislation also directs the US Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with the U.S. State Department, to:
• Enhance vetting of international conservation projects to protect human rights;
• Elevate standards for the treatment of Indigenous people and local communities; 
• Investigate, report on, and respond to human rights abuses with transparency, suspending or terminating grants if necessary; and
• Frequently audit high-risk projects and incorporate human rights standards in the audits.

The bill comes at a critical time, with a crucial meeting taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, next week where governments are preparing to agree on a plan to turn 30% of the Earth into Protected Areas, despite the violence and land theft associated with them. It also follows violent attacks on Maasai in Tanzania protesting against the theft of their land for trophy hunting and conservation.

The proposed law is a major victory for Survival’s long-standing campaign to decolonize conservation and stop evictions and human rights abuses against Indigenous people in the name of conservation. It comes after an unprecedented hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee saw WWF accused of deceit, cover-ups and dishonesty.

Survival International’s Fiore Longo said today: “After years of impunity for the conservation industry and a total failure to audit their wrongdoings, legislators are finally realizing the urgency of the problem. Survival has spent decades speaking out against human rights abuses committed in the name of conservation – funded by taxpayers.

“Conservation, as it’s practiced today, is destroying Indigenous Peoples who are the best guardians of our natural world. The bill, even if not perfect, is nevertheless a success for the campaign to decolonize conservation: it shows just how much impact pressure from public opinion can have. It’s a clear signal that times are changing for the likes of WWF and WCS: this establishes a vital precedent that will be difficult for conservation organizations, and their funders, to ignore.”

Note to Editors: Now that it has passed the committee stage, the bill’s sponsors can move it to the House of Representatives for a vote.

Elderly Maasai man wounded in the military attack on protesters. © Survival

Thousands of Maasai people have fled their homes and escaped into the bush following a brutal police crackdown on protests against government attempts to evict them to make way for trophy hunters and conservation.

On June 8 dozens of police vehicles and an estimated 700 officers arrived in Loliondo, N. Tanzania, near the world-famous Serengeti National Park, to demarcate a 1,500 km2 area of Maasai land as a Game Reserve. On June 10 they fired on Maasai protesting at efforts to evict them: at least 18 men and 13 women were shot, and 13 wounded with machetes. One person is confirmed dead.

Videos and photos widely shared on social media show a deadly and indiscriminate attack on the protesters.

Now, police are going house-to-house in Maasai villages, beating and arresting those they believe distributed images of the violence, or took part in the protests. A man aged 90 was beaten by police because his son was accused of filming the shooting. In one village alone at least 300, including children, are reported to have fled into the bush. A dozen people have been arrested.

The violence of the last few days is the latest episode in a long-running effort by Tanzania’s authorities to evict Maasai from their land in Loliondo for safari tourism and trophy hunting. The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Otterlo Business Company (OBC) — which runs hunting excursions for the country’s royal family and their guests — will reportedly control commercial hunting in the area.

A Maasai leader who is remaining anonymous for his own safety, said: “Our government has decided to unleash the full power of the military to oust us from our land, leaving many injured by gunshots, children roaming in the bush, and we have moved to sleep in the bush. The government is refusing to treat the injured. Many people are without food. And this is our ancestral land. This is barbaric to take our land for luxury hunting of the UAE leaders.”

Another Maasai man told Survival: “I love this place because it’s my home… They want our land because we have water sources, and we have them because we protect them. We have been living with wildlife for generations.

“They don’t want the Maasai because people coming here don’t want to see the Maasai. Before, we didn’t think too much (or badly) about tourism but now we understand that tourism is people coming with money, that makes the government think ‘If we did move the Maasai, more people will come here with money’.”

Germany is a major funder of conservation projects in Tanzania, and is heavily involved in shaping conservation policies in the country that have led to thousands of Indigenous people being evicted. Frankfurt Zoological Society funds wildlife rangers and officers, some of whom the Maasai allege have been involved in the latest evictions.

Fiore Longo of Survival International said today: “What’s going on in Loliondo is rapidly turning into a humanitarian catastrophe, one that reveals the true face of conservation. The Maasai are being shot just because they want to live on their ancestral lands in peace – and all to make room for trophy hunting and “conservation.” Many Maasai facing violence today were also evicted from Serengeti in 1959, by British colonial officials, so what’s currently going on is really just a continuation of the colonial past.

“This violence that we see in Tanzania is the reality of conservation in Africa and Asia: daily violations of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities so that the ‘rich’ can hunt and go on safari. These abuses are systemic and are built into the dominant model of conservation based on racism and colonialism. The theory is that humans – especially non-whites – in Protected Areas are a threat to the environment. But Indigenous Peoples have been living there for generations: these territories are now important nature conservation areas precisely because the original inhabitants took such good care of their land and wildlife. We can no longer turn a blind eye to human rights abuses committed in the name of ‘conservation.’ This model of conservation is deeply inhumane and ineffective and must be changed now.”

Note to Editors: The Tanzanian government is attempting to create a 1,500km2 game reserve out of ancestral Maasai lands. It will be set aside for trophy hunting (under the control of Otterlo Business Corporation), conservation and wildlife safari tourism.

Jenu Kuruba woman evicted from Nagarhole Tiger Reserve. © Survival International

Honey-gathering tribe protests for right to return to Nagarhole Tiger Reserve

Tribal people living in the famed Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, who authorities say relocated voluntarily from the reserve, were in reality forcibly evicted, a fact-finding investigation by Fridays For Future Karnataka and others has revealed.

Evictions are carried out by India’s Forest Department but the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS – the parent organization of the Bronx Zoo) supports them. WCS insists these are “voluntary relocations” which are “win-win” for the tribes who, WCS claims, were living in constant fear of wildlife in the forest.

The investigation team interviewed many Jenu Kuruba people, who said they didn’t want to leave but were threatened and harassed into doing so, including by the Forest Department destroying their crops.

What is now the Nagarhole National Park & Tiger Reserve in Karnataka state was created in 1983 from the ancestral land of the Jenu Kuruba and other tribes. It’s one of the most popular tiger safari destinations in India.

The investigation found:

- Many Jenu Kuruba are demanding to go back to their original villages, which are now inside the reserve.
- Government promises made for the relocation were not kept. Many Jenu Kuruba are struggling to survive at the relocation centres and most did not even get the three acres of land they were promised.
- The evictions deprived them of their rights to worship their deities in the forest. The forest department blocks them from going back to the forest to worship.

Ganguamma, who was evicted in 2018, said: “This is our only demand: let us go back. We do not need anything from you. We all can live on our own inside the forest as we have been doing for generations. Tigers and elephants do not attack us as they are our own family. We were happier and healthier and enjoyed well-being inside Nagarhole.”

Another Jenu Kuruba man, JD Jeyappa, told the investigators: “We have grown up inside the forests and shared the forests with wild animals so neither are we afraid of them nor do they destroy our crops. It is these forest department people we are afraid of and it is they who destroy our crops.”

An elderly Jenu Kuruba man, Basava Raju, who was “resettled” 100km from the reserve in 2014, said: “These are not resettlement camps, these are camps to kill us, kill our roots in the forest, kill our culture and kill our sacred deities.”

The report’s authors called today for:

- A complete halt to continuing efforts to evict more Jenu Kuruba people.
- Those Jenu Kuruba who want to return to their original villages to be allowed to do so.
- The recognition of the Jenu Kuruba’s forest rights.

Survival International’s Sophie Grig said today: “This report exposes the reality of fortress conservation that is destroying the lives of Indigenous Peoples across Africa and Asia. The Jenu Kuruba have been illegally evicted and forced to live desperate lives in resettlement camps. They are even denied their constitutional rights to practice their religion. Many have simply had enough and are demanding their right to return to the their villages in the forest. This colonial model of conservation is disastrous for people and the planet and must be stopped.”

Protestors gather outside Indian High Commission in London to protest against coal mining in Hasdeo Forest, India, as part of a global day of solidarity. © Kristian Buus

UPDATE: An international day of protest is taking place this Wednesday May 11 against plans by the Indian authorities to mine tribal forests for coal – PHOTOS BELOW.

Adivasi (Indigenous) people in the unique Hasdeo Forest in Chhattisgarh have been passionately resisting the destruction of their lands and futures for coal. Across central India, tens of thousands of Adivasi people’s lands and livelihoods are under threat from coal mining. As India gears up to increase coal mining to one billion tonnes per year, 80% of new planned mines are on Adivasi lands.

Protests have taken place in:
London, UK, supported by South Asia Solidarity Group and London Mining Network,
Milan, Italy,
Sydney & Brisbane, Australia,
Porto Alegre, Brazil,
Toronto, Canada,
Berlin, Germany.

Protests are yet to take place in:
Washington DC, USA, at the Embassy of India, 2107 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008 | 9am EST – supported by Hindus for Human Rights & the Indian American Muslim Council.

Authorities in India recently approved the vast Parsa mine in Hasdeo. Thousands of Gond and Oraon Adivasis, and Dalits, will see their lands and livelihoods destroyed by the mine. The existing PEKB coal mine in the Forest has also had a huge expansion project greenlighted. Both mines will be operated by mining giant Adani.

In approving these mines, the Indian government has defied a vociferous and determined Adivasi protest movement, which has seen rallies, marches, and vigils to protect trees from being felled.

Adivasi resistance movements across central India are striving to keep their forests standing and the coal in the ground. They are fighting for their rights to be respected and the law to be followed, but their leaders are under threat from police crackdowns despite their dissent being both peaceful and law-abiding.

One Adivasi man said: “We are facing a critical situation now and so we are doing an indefinite protest. If our lands are taken away, our future generations will lose their identity and our existence will be lost forever.”

For more images, please see this collection.

ID card of Pitseng Gaoberekwe, who lived in the CKGR all his life, moved out of the reserve to be near his children towards the end of his life, and whose family are now forbidden from burying him back in the CKGR, in accordance with his dying wish. © Survival

A judge in Botswana has refused to allow the body of an elderly Bushman man to be buried on his ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), in a move that threatens to re-ignite long-standing tensions between the Bushmen and the government.

Pitseng Gaoberekwe was a Bushman hunter who spent almost all his life in the reserve. But towards the end of his life he moved to one of Botswana’s notorious eviction camps outside the reserve to be closer to his children, and when he died the authorities refused to allow his body back into the reserve to be buried.

His family have fought for four months for the right to bury him in the reserve, in accordance with his dying wishes. According to Bushman religious beliefs, being able to visit the graves of one’s relatives is absolutely vital, and is frequently referred to as a kind of “medicine.”

Justice Itumeleng Segopolo said in his ruling today that Mr Gaoberekwe’s family have to collect his body within 10 days and bury him outside the reserve, or they will be jailed.

In 2006 the Bushmen won a landmark court case for the right to live in the reserve. Many Bushmen believe the government is using the current legal battle as a means of exacting revenge for their defeat in that case, and point to the choice of the authorities’ lawyer in the current case – former Presidential advisor Sidney Pilane, who represented the government in its historic 2006 defeat.

Mr Gaoberekwe had been so determined to continue living in the reserve as a hunter that he had previously endured assault, detention and a year’s imprisonment in 1994 after being arrested by wildlife scouts for hunting.

Smith Moeti, a nephew of the dead man, told Survival today: “This separation of our souls and spirits is like weaning a day-old infant from its mother. We believe the courts in Botswana are loyal to the government, so we don’t expect justice. This ruling is a violation of our indigenous rights as enshrined in international laws and treaties. We have rights over our ancestral land and no-one can take that away from us, whatever the government says. It was our land long before it was a game reserve.”

Fiona Watson, Research Director at Survival International said today: “This ruling is a bitter blow for Pitseng’s family and a big setback for all Bushmen who call the CKGR home. The fact it ever got to court shows the government is once again intent on persecuting the CKGR Bushmen, in a staggeringly vindictive move to deny a person their rights even in death. The ruling flies in the face of the landmark 2006 High Court case when the court ruled the government had acted unconstitutionally in evicting the Bushmen from their ancestral land in the CKGR. Survival condemns the government and this misguided ruling, and will do all it can to obtain justice for Pitseng’s family.”

Illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory. Brazil, 2022. © Bruno Kelly/HAY

Four Yanomami people in Venezuela – three men and one woman – were shot dead in cold blood last month by Venezuelan soldiers who opened fire on a group of Yanomami during an argument over access to the internet. The tragedy occurred in Parima B, a large Yanomami community where the military have a base.

A 16-year-old Yanomami boy, and the brother of one of those killed, were wounded and evacuated to hospital in the state capital, Puerto Ayacucho.

The killings happened at a time of rising tension in the territory. Despite repeated demands from the Yanomami over the last decade, the Venezuelan authorities have done little to stop the thousands of illegal miners working there. The military, far from protecting the Yanomami and their territory from the invasions, stand accused of benefiting from the illegal gold trade.

The humanitarian catastrophe is engulfing many communities. There are reports of miners forcing Yanomami women into prostitution and men to work in the mining operations. Malaria is rife and due to the economic and political crisis in Venezuela and government negligence, health teams are barely operating in the territory.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the attack and called on the government to set up an independent investigation into the killings and to bring the culprits to justice.

The situation in the Yanomami territory in Brazil is also catastrophic, and now resembles a war zone. Hutukara and Wanasseduume, Indigenous organizations representing the Yanomami and Ye’kwana in the Yanomami territory, launched a shocking report this month: “Yanomami under Attack” which documents violence, sexual abuse and high rates of malaria and mercury poisoning among the Yanomami as a result of the illegal mining.

It found that between 2016 and 2020, illegal goldmining grew by 3,350%, and now directly affects 273 Yanomami communities totalling 16,000 people or 56% of the population. In 2021 mining increased by 46% in comparison to 2020.

Sexual violence against Yanomami women is on the rise as miners offer drugs and alcohol in exchange for sex, and the report refers to several cases of rape of Yanomami women and harassment of girls.

The Yanomami’s health is plummeting and the reports says: “The illegal extraction of gold has caused an explosion in cases of malaria and other infectious and contagious diseases, with serious consequences for the families’ health and economy.”

Armed and violent criminal gangs operate with impunity in the region and many communities in the illegal mining zones are living in a permanent state of siege as miners constantly intimidate and fire on them. In 2020 two Yanomami were killed by goldminers and in 2021 at least two uncontacted Yanomami were reportedly murdered by goldminers. Two Yanomami children drowned when they were sucked under a goldmining dredge in 2021.

Much of the invasion is fomented by President Bolsonaro’s racist rhetoric and attempts to subvert the constitution and legalize all forms of mining in Indigenous territories. The high price of gold, and powerful economic and political interests in the region, exacerbate the problem. However, in a blow to Bolsonaro and his allies, a draft mining bill to open up mining in Indigenous territories has been put on hold in Congress.

A Yanomami leader from Palimiu, a community which has suffered repeated violent attacks, sent this appeal: “You non-Indians, you who live in distant lands…. see that we Yanomami are really suffering!… We want the whole world’s leaders to look at us! … We have been suffering along with the forest! … Now the forest is dead. . They destroyed all the trees we used to eat fruit from! They cut down all the big trees! And who did that? The miners did! … Our land is completely dead! … Just as the forest is devastated, so are we! Why are we damaged? We’ve been devastated by mining. We want to open your eyes. They have wiped us all out!”

Survival has protested to the Venezuelan authorities about the murder of the four Yanomami; called for the military to be tried and sentenced for the killings; and recently demonstrated outside the Brazilian embassy with other NGOs against illegal mining, logging and landgrabs on Indigenous lands.