In Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, tribal communities are protesting state moves to declare Zudpi Jungle—a vital commons—as reserve forests. This threatens their access to traditional lands, sparking unrest across districts like Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, & Nagpur.

In Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, tribal communities are protesting state moves to declare Zudpi Jungle—a vital commons—as reserve forests. This threatens their access to traditional lands, sparking unrest across districts like Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, & Nagpur.

In 2019, the Maharashtra government started the process of trying to declare over 93,000 hectares of Zudpi land as reserve forests—a move ironically rooted in its earlier efforts to denotify these lands as forests.

Declaring an area as a reserve forest imposes several restrictions–locals must seek forest department permission to enter, while activities like grazing, tree felling, and using forest resources are prohibited unless explicitly permitted.

In Chandrapur's Mangli village, Madia Gond tribals protested the crippling restrictions placed on the access to their lands under the proposed reserve declaration. The govt said that it had received no written complaints, a claim refuted by the locals.

While reserve forest status can potentially restrict access, denotifying Zudpi lands presents its own risks. Activists fear that de-notification of these areas for development could lead to further exploitation and displacement of tribal communities.

The Zudpi Jungle protests highlight a larger issue: Can conservation coexist with community rights? As Vidarbha’s tribal communities fight to protect their livelihoods, they pose a critical challenge to India's forest governance policies.

Read full story by LCW Writing Fellow @sukriti_vats for @thewire_in

https://thewire.in/rights/maharashtra-unrest-across-eastern-vidarbha-adivasi-communities-zudpi-jungle