Rehabilitation and Resettlement of project affected displaced tribals of Mysore: NHRC's efforts yield results

The plight of 154 tribal families living in and around N. Begur in H.D. Kote Taluk of Mysore District who had been affected by the construction of the Kabini Reservoir in early 1970's and Bandipur Project Tiger National Park in 1973-74 was brought to the notice of the NHRC by Dr. Balasubramaniam, Project Director and Shri Mohan, President, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, Mysore in their petitions dated 22 January 1998 and 20 March 1998.
Following this the NHRC called the petitioners for a personal hearing. The Commission then sought reports from the State Government and directed its Special Rapporteur, Shri Chaman Lal to visit the site for ascertaining the ground realities and submit a report. On consideration of the reports of the Special Rapporteur as well as those from various officials of the State Government, the Commission on 4 August 1998 recommended that :-
i) The Administration should act promptly to restore to the tribals their land following the favourable verdict of the Court.
ii) The Forest Department issue suitable instructions to their field staff to give preference to the tribals affected by the Kabini and Bandipur National Park Projects in the matter of providing jobs on daily-wages. Compliance of these instructions may be monitored at a very senior level.
iii) The Government may consider selecting a few boys and girls of the tribal community who have passed SSLC and put them to TCH Course (Teacher's Course Higher Certificate). They may be posted to the schools in the tribal areas after successful completion of the Course.
A compliance report was received from the Chief Secretary, Karnataka and was considered by the Commission. This was followed by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission reviewing the implementation of the Commission's recommendations in a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner, Mysore and officials of the Forest Department and another with the Chief Secretary at Bangalore on 27 March 1999.
The Special Rapporteur reported back to the NHRC that on Rehabilitation and Resettlement of the Tribals affected by the construction of Kabini Reservoir, the progress was found to be very slow. Regarding Rehabilitation and resettlement of tribals affected by the formation of Bandipur Project Tiger National Park, the Commission's recommendation on allotment of 300 acre of revenue land identified at AINAPURA, which is the key recommendation, has not yet been implemented. On the issue of alleged harassment of the tribals by the officials of the Police and Forest Department, the Government of Karnataka has accepted the recommendations and has withdrawn the case filed against the tribals.
The Commission then felt it appropriate that the process of rehabilitation be monitored by a Committee consisting of representatives of the Government of Karnataka, one representative of the Government of India, Ministry of Environment & Forests, the petitioner, one representative of the Tribals to be nominated by the petitioner and the Special Rapporteur, Shri Chaman Lal who would represent the National Human Rights Commission. Following this, the Commission kept monitoring the case and sought reports periodically.
On 20 June 2005, the Commission directed the Deputy Commissioner, Mysore to furnish an up-to-date status report relating to the resettlement of the 154 displaced tribal families. In response, the Deputy Commissioner, Mysore furnished a comprehensive status report dated 5 Sept. 2005.
After examining the State's response, the Commission expressed that there has been a happy outcome of the NHRC's intervention. It took on record the report dated 5 September 2005 of the Deputy Commissioner, Mysore and closed the case on 23 January 2006.