Like most Van Gujjars in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, 70-year-old Noor Mohammad has lived in forests all his life. He lived with his wife and daughter in a dera—a small cluster of huts made of mud and tree branches, usually occupied by a single Van Gujjar family—in the Chapdi range of Shivalik Forest, around 60 kilometres from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district. Less than 20 feet away, his son lived with his wife and their two sons. In the surrounding area, there were several more huts, of Noor’s brothers and their children. On 14 March 2018, he celebrated his daughter’s wedding in that dera. But the very next day, after six decades spent in the forest, Noor and his family were forced to leave. That morning, he recalled, bombs fired from the Indian Army’s Asan Field Firing Range, also located in the Shivalik forest, were exploding around their dera. While seeking…

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