“We have been living on the forest land for hundreds of years. Our forefathers used to live on these lands. We earn from the land and we live on the land. We are poor people. If they took away our land where will we go,” asks Prabhu, member of a tribal community from Rajasthan.
While marching towards the Parliament House in New Delhi on Saturday, Prabhu told India Tomorrow: “I have come here to protest against the government move to take away our land and forest. I have come here to reclaim our rights of tribal. We will not sit until we take back our land.”
Like Prabhu, there were hundreds of people from tribal and adivasi communities who had thronged the National Capital on Saturday from across the country to speak out over eviction threat looming large over one million people in the wake of the recent Supreme Court order. The top court last week stayed its order for four months. Scores of tribal rights activists and research scholars from various universities also came out and took part in the protest march to show their solidarity with the protesting communities.
