The Chenchu have been reportedly subject to ongoing forced evictions from their ancestral lands now occupied by the Amrabad Tiger Reserve and the neighboring Nagarjunsagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (which is the largest Tiger Reserve in India). This has occurred without their prior and informed consent. In facing evictions, Chenchu families would have been told by forest officials that their Indigenous forest/land rights under the FRA 2006 don’t apply within the Amrabad Tiger Reserve and many of their applications for recognition of these rights have been ignored or rejected over the years. While Indigenous Chenchu are reportedly violently excluded from accessing ancestral lands that are central to their industries and lifeways, tourists are allowed to visit the Amrabad Tiger Reserve in large and potentially disruptive numbers as this is supposedly ‘lucrative’ to the Reserve. 

On March 27, 2021, 16 members of the Lambadas went inside the Amrabad Tiger Reserve to pick mahua flowers, which is a major source of livelihood for them.  In the middle of the night, while the members of the tribe were sleeping in the forest after collecting flowers, they were reportedly attacked by forest officials. The members of the tribe were reportedly ordered to strip and were beaten. Victims suffered head injuries such as 48 year-old K Patya, and even a 70 year-old woman was also manhandled. The other unnamed adivasi women and men were likewise forced to strip and were reportedly tortured. In addition, the Lambadas have been booked under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for unauthorized entry into the tiger reserve, removal/destruction of forest produce, lighting firewood to cook, and carrying weapons inside the tiger reserve. The Lambadas were allegedly criminalized and judicially harassed in spite of the fact that the Scheduled Tribes have the right to collect, use, and dispose of "minor forest produce" (which included Mahua flower) from forest lands.^[1]