Chenchus not ready for relocation

Allege that authorities and vested interests are trying to create false narrative

ekalavya mallepalli I hyderabad

The Chenchu Solidarity Forum (CSF), an independent collective working to uphold the rights of the Chenchu Adivasi community, has raised serious concerns over attempts to portray the relocation of Chenchu families from the Amrabad Tiger Reserve in Nagarkurnool district as voluntary.

The forum was responding to a rally held at Achampet on April 27, where banners reportedly claimed that there was no forcible relocation of Adivasis. According to CSF, ground reports indicate that, apart from a few participants, many in the rally were non-Adivasis (non-Chenchus). It alleged that certain authorities and vested interests are trying to create a public impression that all Chenchu community members are willingly giving consent for relocation.

CSF stated that the rally appeared to be largely non-Adivasi and male-led, based on available videos. It contrasted this with the voices of numerous Chenchu women, men, and youth who had submitted grievances at Prajavani and spoke at a Hyderabad consultation on April 17, 2026, where they reportedly resisted relocation and asserted their forest rights.

The forum said the visible support for relocation by non-Adivasis reflects the high-handedness of outsiders from beyond the Fifth Schedule area, who it alleged are jeopardizing the constitutional rights of the Chenchu Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) by making statements on their behalf and projecting them as eager for relocation.

CSF also pointed to remarks made by a few Chenchu participants at the rally who supported relocation due to lack of roads, hospitals, schools, and other basic facilities in forest areas. The forum said these statements expose decades of deprivation, where Chenchus have been denied fundamental rights to development and have been made to feel that relocation is the only path to accessing essential services.

According to CSF, such circumstances amount to indirect pressure and are against the procedures of consent-seeking under legal safeguards such as the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), the Forest Rights Act (FRA), the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR), as well as National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines.

The forum further noted that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has issued clear relocation guidelines stating that consent cannot be obtained through regressive tactics such as denying communities access to basic development within forest areas. It warned that obtaining consent without proper Gram Sabha resolutions, through alleged forged signatures, or without completing due legal processes under FRA and LARR is not constitutionally valid.

CSF emphasized that Chenchus, as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, often lack adequate access to information about their legal entitlements and the implications of being relocated outside Scheduled Areas. Condemning what it described as motivated attempts to demonstrate “voluntary consent,” the forum said such actions serve vested interests of non-Adivasis at the cost of PVTG Chenchus and their constitutional safeguards.