It also demanded that action be taken under the SC / ST Prevention of Torture Act against foresters who removed huts set up on leased land.
ATR forest officials removed Kadar huts: After a series of struggles in the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve, 21 Kadar tribal families living in Kallar were given residential plots to live in the Teppakula Matt, where the Kadars’ ancestors lived, under the Forest Rights Recognition Act. On November 7, Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Senthil Balaji handed over the pattas to them and 23 families were living in the same set in the pouring rain. The Kadar tribe have set up 5 huts on the land allotted to them. However, the forest department has disposed of their huts, claiming that they have occupied the forest and set up huts in places other than those given to them by the land survey department.
The Kadar tribes, who lost their arable lands and residential areas due to heavy rains in 2018-19, have set up huts in another area under the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve. Without even giving them a 24-hour respite, the seniors dismantled their huts and housed all of them in the Thaimudi tea plantation workers’ quarters. More than 80 tribesmen were housed in 6 residential areas. They were given pattas in Theppakulam after more than two years of struggle despite being told that they would be given alternative accommodation in 10 days.
The action of the forest department has caused great grief and fear to the tribal people who were waiting for new life with adequate basic amenities, road facilities, clean drinking water, toilet and electricity facilities. More than a year after the land was surveyed, the joy of the tribes who had won their rights through a moral struggle on Gandhi Jayanti did not last even for a few weeks. The police arrested the people who were involved in the rally claiming to provide the strap to drink under the 2019 wildlife law. On August 15, 2020, the foresters were deployed at Theppakula Matt to prevent the cadres who had returned to the Thaimudi estate from going back to the struggle. The incident by the forest department is even more shocking as the Qadar tribes have been experiencing such violations by the forest department.
Four out of 5 huts were removed without prior notice while only one hut out of five huts was completely removed, said Manampalli Forest Officer A.K. Posted in a press release issued by Manikandan.
If huts have been set up in areas where the land has not been surveyed, it may have been forecast or given notice. Tribal activists have recorded their views that the forest department still adheres to the same way it handled the tribe in the early days.
A protest is being held today in front of the BSNL office on behalf of all political and social movements in Pollachi to condemn this act of the forest department. It also demanded that action be taken under the SC / ST Prevention of Torture Act against foresters who removed huts set up on leased land.
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