In Karnataka’s section of the Western Ghats, lies Makuta village, under Betoli gram panchayat of Virajpet taluka in Kodagu district. In 2021, with the help of two local people including a Muslim gram panchayat member, all the 19 Yerava households here were able to successfully claim their ‘land’ in the forest, under the Forest Rights Act. When this writer-researcher visited …
