Hyderabad: Residents of five villages inside the Amrabad Tiger Reserve in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district took to the streets in Achampet town recently, demanding that forest authorities speed up their voluntary relocation, while pushing back against claims that they are being forcibly displaced.
The rally, attended by women, youth and elders from Sarlapally, Kudichintala Bailu, Kollampenta, Thatigundala Penta and Vatavarlapally, came at an unusually charged moment. In recent weeks, allegations have circulated that Chenchu tribal communities in the reserve are being coerced into leaving by Forest Department officials. The villagers were unequivocal in their rejection of that narrative.
“Neither officials nor political leaders have exerted any pressure, force, or inducement on us,” they said in a collective statement at the rally. “This decision was taken by the people of our villages after careful discussion, with the welfare of future generations in mind.”
Why they want to leave
The villages lie deep inside one of southern India’s most significant tiger habitats – a 2,600-square-kilometre reserve that is home to tigers, leopards, bears, deer and a rich forest ecosystem. For the Chenchu, a particularly vulnerable tribal group, it is also ancestral land. But the practical realities of living there have become increasingly untenable, the villagers say.
During the monsoon, roads into the forest become impassable for weeks. Medical emergencies can turn life-threatening. Children must travel long distances to access even basic schooling. Drinking water, transport and emergency services remain chronically difficult to access.
The villagers described these not as recent grievances but as structural conditions that have shaped their lives for generations, and which they no longer believe will meaningfully change as long as they remain inside the reserve.
“We have come forward for relocation only to secure quality education for our children, better medical facilities, livelihood opportunities for youth and safer living conditions for women and families,” they said.
A trade-off that benefits everyone
In making their case, the villagers articulated what wildlife conservationists have long argued – that voluntary relocation of communities from core tiger habitats, when consensual and well-executed, can benefit both the people and the wildlife.
Reduced human presence inside the forest would ease pressure on vegetation and water sources, allow for natural forest regeneration and create safer corridors for tigers and other animals. It would also significantly reduce human-animal conflict, which is a persistent source of danger for both communities and wildlife in the reserve.
In framing their rally this way, the villagers were presenting voluntary rehabilitation not as displacement but as a model of coexistence.
Waiting for the state to act
The rally ended with a direct appeal to district forest authorities to expedite a process the villagers say has been pending for far too long. The energy in the crowd, with slogans raised by women and elders, showed that the community had made up its mind and grown tired of waiting.
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