India: Stop Evicting Displaced People

In the latest crackdown against displaced persons, the Andhra Pradesh forest department on April 5, 2008, destroyed homes of displaced indigenous persons residing in Kothooru village to forcibly evict them. Since January 2007, the Andhra Pradesh forest department has made about 10 attempts to forcibly evict displaced persons from Kothooru.  
 
Many thousands of men, women, and children fled to Andhra Pradesh from the conflict in Chhattisgarh, said Meenakshi Ganguly, senior researcher for South Asia at Human Rights Watch. Instead of providing them with safe sanctuary, the authorities are tearing down their homes and putting them in harms way.  
 
Since June 2005, between 30,000 and 50,000 people have fled to Khammam and Warrangal districts of Andhra Pradesh following escalating tensions in Chhattisgarh between Naxalites, an armed Maoist group, and a state-supported vigilante group called Salwa Judum. Although the Indian federal, and Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh state governments describe Salwa Judum as a spontaneous uprising against Naxal abuses, Human Rights Watch found that police routinely participate in violent Salwa Judum raids against villages suspected of being pro-Naxalite. According to Human Rights Watch investigations in November and December 2007, most villagers fled to Andhra Pradesh because of attacks by Salwa Judum and police.  
 
Once in neighboring Andhra Pradesh, many of these displaced persons settled in reserved forest areas. Saying these settlements are illegal, the authorities have without prior notice or due process repeatedly burned down the hamlets of hundreds of displaced persons, forcibly evicting them from forest lands. In some cases, Andhra Pradesh forest department officials have forced them into trucks and dropped them close to the Chhattisgarh state boundary.  

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