Forest rights activists wrote to Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Arjun Munda on Friday, flagging that an advisory issued to prevent the transmission of coronavirus between humans and animals can be "misused" to restrict the access of tribal and nomadic communities to natural resources.
The Union Environment Ministry had on April 6 asked all states to take immediate steps to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 from humans to animals and vice-versa, after a tiger in New York's Bronx Zoo contracted the disease from an infected caretaker.
Among other directions, the ministry had sought a reduction in human-wildlife interface and restrictions on the movement of villagers inside and around protected areas.
Expressing concern over this aspect of the advisory, the forest and tribal rights groups, including the Van Panchayat Sangharsh Morcha, the All India Union of Forest Working People and the Adivasi Jan Van Adhikar Manch, said, "There are around three to four million people living inside and around protected areas, and many more in the immediate surroundings."
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