Biligiri Rangaswamy Soliga Tribe Honey Forest Karnataka

The Soliga tribal community of the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary (BRT Wildlife Sanctuary) in Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka, are considered India's model case of community rights within a protected forest area — the first instance in India where a tribe was granted rights to collect non-timber forest produce (NTFP) including honey, gooseberry, and medicinal plants inside a declared Tiger Reserve under the Forest Rights Act 2006. The Soliga are forest-dwellers who have lived in the Biligiri hills for thousands of years, developing a knowledge system of honey harvesting from rock bee (Apis dorsata) colonies on cliff faces and high trees using traditional smoke-and-climb methods. The Soliga NTFP cooperative — Li-BIRD (Livelihood and Innovation in BioRural Development) — collects and markets Soliga wild honey, dried gooseberry (amla), and forest medicinal plants through fair-trade channels to urban organic buyers. The Supreme Court case that established Soliga community rights in BRT (Girijan Seva Samithi vs Union of India, 2011) is a landmark in tribal forest rights jurisprudence in India. The BRT honey — from multi-floral Biligiri hill forest sources — sells at premium in urban organic markets in Bengaluru and Mumbai. The Soliga community's intimate forest knowledge is being documented through ethno-botanical research in partnership with ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment).