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The All India Kisan Sabha has alleged that attempts to evict forest dwellers from 5,072.653 hectares in the Meghamalai-Varusanadu area of Tamil Nadu are illegal.
AIKS says the area, part of the Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve in Theni district, is home to about 25,000 people across nine village panchayats.
The organisation says many affected residents are Adivasis, Dalits and members of Most Backward Classes who meet the Forest Rights Act’s definition of traditional forest dwellers.
AIKS has demanded that the Tamil Nadu government implement the Forest Rights Act in the region and urged the Supreme Court to uphold the law “in its true spirit”.
Farmers’ group All India Kisan Sabha has alleged that ongoing attempts to evict traditional forest dwellers from 5,072.653 hectares of land in the Meghamalai-Varusanadu area of Tamil Nadu are illegal. In a statement issued on September 2, 2026, AIKS said the eviction attempts reflected the “colonial and anti-democratic legacy” of forest governance in India.
The area, located in Theni district, is part of the Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve. According to AIKS, it is home to about 25,000 people, most of them marginal peasants living across nine village panchayats. The organisation said the affected people included Adivasis, Dalits and members of Most Backward Classes, and alleged that they were being branded as “encroachers” despite long histories of habitation and cultivation in the area.
AIKS said it was “of the firm opinion” that the case represented a systemic and deliberate violation of the law by the state. “Branding peasants as ‘encroachers’, the Tamil Nadu forest department is deploying every dirty trick in the book to evict toiling peasants from this terrain,” the statement said.
“The fact that the major chunk of the affected peasants belongs to Adivasis, Dalits and Most Backward Classes is a mirror of the brutal forest governance regime implemented by the Indian ruling classes,” it added.
AIKS president Ashok Dhawale said the communities met the Forest Rights Act’s definition of traditional forest dwellers. “The reality is that revenue records, Zamin records, historical maps, and census material of the contested terrain clearly demonstrate that people were already living and farming in this area before it was subsequently declared a reserve forest and wildlife sanctuary,” he said.
The organisation said the Forest Rights Act had been undermined “in letter and spirit” by the forest bureaucracy. It said the Act prohibits the eviction or removal of forest dwellers from forest land under their occupation until the recognition and verification of their rights is complete.
AIKS alleged that the Tamil Nadu forest bureaucracy had a record of violating the Forest Rights Act and manipulating other laws in cases involving Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers.
“The Tamil Nadu forest bureaucracy — hand in glove with the elite conservation industry — has a notorious track record in violating FRA and manipulating other laws when it comes to the suppression of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers,” the statement said.
The organisation also accused the forest bureaucracy of acting vindictively and disregarding the law. It linked the eviction attempts to the larger political economy of forest resources, alleging that policy decisions favoured global finance and corporate interests while acting against marginalised communities.
AIKS said similar concerns existed in areas surrounding the Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve and the Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.
Vijoo Krishnan, general secretary of AIKS and a co-author of the letter, said the executive had shown a lack of respect for the Gram Sabha, which is a statutory authority under the Forest Rights Act.
He alleged that such actions were gross violations of the Forest Rights Act as well as the Wildlife Protection Act in the establishment of tiger reserves in India.
Krishnan also alleged that, in several cases related to the Forest Rights Act and the Wildlife Protection Act, a section of the judiciary had appeared willing to justify violations of law and excesses by the forest bureaucracy.
The letter said constitutional experts and activists had pointed to certain instances of such behaviour by the Madras High Court in forest-related cases, including the Meghamalai-Varusanadu case.
“The esteemed higher courts should be guided by constitutional morality and not by the colonial legacy of forest governance,” AIKS said.
The organisation said preventing the weakening of the Forest Rights Act was a “patriotic duty”, arguing that violations of the law could create conditions for corporate control over natural resources.
AIKS has demanded that the Tamil Nadu government take concrete steps to implement the Forest Rights Act in the region.
It has also urged the Supreme Court to uphold the Act “in its true spirit”.
