the indigenous community of 61 villages in Melghat of Amravati district, Maharashtra, are in constant fear of being evicted from their homes and losing standing crops due to Project Tiger. Two villages falling under the Project Tiger in Dharni and Chikhaldara districts have already faced the wrath of project officials, who destroyed their crops growing on reserved forest land.
The only ray of light for these villagers now, is a public interest litigation filed on their behalf by Khoj, a non-governmental organisation. In May, 1999, almost half of Melghat had come under Project Tiger and since then there have been lot of efforts to drive the indigenous people out of their homeland.
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