For Adivasis, health is inextricably linked to forests

Whenever Adivasi communities express hesitation towards public systems, be it ‘free’ healthcare or education, it is often treated as a problem of our beliefs, behaviour, or a ‘lack of awareness’. My experience as a first-generation Soliga Adivasi scholar who grew up in the forest areas of southern Karnataka’s Biligirirangana Betta (BR Hills) suggests something else. For Adivasi people, without forests there is no health. And our mistrust of the state is inextricable from the long history of dispossession to which our people have been subjected. Forests and nature represent how food, livelihoods, freedom, and healing practices come together in everyday life. Despite this, throughout history, the rights of Adivasi communities to our homes, lands, and holy places have been denied, often under the guise of tribal development and wildlife conservation. These policies have restricted our access to the very forests and resources that sustain us, which has contributed to malnutrition, migratio