A group of indigenous people known for gathering honey are protesting against their eviction from an Indian tiger reserve, a flashpoint in an ongoing legal battle that has pitted wildlife conservationists against land rights groups across the country.

The Jenu Kuruba tribe, which traditionally gathers honey and other forest produce, has lived within the Nagarhole National Park in the southern state of Karnataka for generations.

But hundreds of people from the community were evicted after authorities designated the park as a tiger reserve in 1999 and dismissed their claims for land rights under a 2006 federal law designed to protect them.