29Government restrictions prevent the Solega from hunting, collecting timber and set-
ting fi res to clear land for agriculture, while Lantana has made it diffi cult for people
to travel, as well as fi nd important medicinal plant s and traditional foods. Perhaps the
most alarming impact is the change in the behaviour of elephants , who now fi nd it
hard to locate the grasses (particularly ba:ṇe hullu ) that dominate their diet, and are
subsequently more ill-tempered, unpredictable and violent. Dense Lantana thickets
also obscure the vision of people travelling through the forest, and prevent the early
detection of dangerous wild animals, including elephants, bears and wild pigs.
Given that the forest ecosystem is visibly in decline, the Solega are angry that their
own traditional activities have been curtailed, as they see a very clear link between
their agricultural practices and the health of the forest (see Chap. 5 for a more detailed
discussion). Briefl y, the clearing of the forest understory and accumulated leaf litter
through controlled burning has the double advantage of keeping Lantana in check
and promoting the growth of the seedlings of important rainforest trees. Many older
Solega remember times when Lantana was scarce and wild animals and birds were
plentiful, as was a diverse assortment of understorey shrubs and herbs, edible mush-
rooms and honey with the aroma of now-rare wildfl owers. The exact nature of the
link between agricultural fi res and Lantana prevalence remains to be determined
empirically, and is an important issue that is still being investigated [ 98 ].
Two momentous policy decisions were made by at the national and local govern-
ment level in recent years, that have the capacity to radically alter the future trajec-
tory of Solega habitation in their ancestral forests. The fi rst was the Recognition of
Forest Rights Act (RFRA), 2006, which went some way towards reversing the
highly proctectionist tone of its predecessors, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the
Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The RFRA granted ‘forest dwelling Scheduled
Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers’ the right to live on, and cultivate, their
traditional land, collect minor forest produce, and also be granted legal title to land
that was being cultivated prior to a cut-off date. As can be expected, this develop-
ment was warmly welcomed by the Solega, as many became the undisputed owners
of small parcels of land, and small-scale commercial activities, such as the collec-
tion of honey and lichen for sale through the Soliga Abhivruddhi Sangha (SAS)
‘Soliga Development Co-operative’ could recommence.
The second, and more recent, policy directive to reach the B. R. Hills is the deci-
sion of the Karnataka state Forest Department to notify that region as a Project Tiger
Reserve. Tiger Reserves are traditionally people-free zones, and in the past, the
inhabitants of areas so designated were either forcibly evicted, or convinced to leave
by means of monetary enticements. Prominent Solega elders and activists, supported
by organisations such as the SAS, ATREE and VGKK have publically and unani-
mously opposed the creation of a Reserve in the traditional sense, and have instead
proposed a more inclusive ‘community-based tiger conservation model’ [ 99 ].
1.7 Ethnographic Sketch