Mysuru: Escalating the tribals' agitation for land in Diddalli, Virajpet taluk, Kodagu, their leader, Muththamma has threatened to continue her naked march if the government still insists on evicting them from the village.
The woman’s naked march on December 7 had attracted wide attention on social media and she is clearly hoping for more public support for the agitation using a similar tactic now.
While the government argues there is no place for the tribals in Diddalli as it is in a reserve forest , Muththamma is now demanding farmland and sites for not only the 574 families evicted by the forest department on December 7 from the village, but for the entire tribal community living in line houses on all the coffee estates of Kodagu district.
“We plan to hold a mega convention in Madikeri on December 23 to push for this demand. If the government still doesn’t given in, I will continue my naked march as a mark of protest,” she warned.
Asked why the tribals had moved out of the line houses on the coffee estates, she said they no longer wanted to be treated like bonded labourers. “We were paid merely Rs 50 to Rs 200 and if we took a loan of Rs 1000, we were made to work for Rs 2000. Some treated us well, but others made us do all kinds of work. Even children were not spared. Our working hours were long, and even if a person was sick or had undergone surgery, he had to work. Some of our women were sexually abused and the education of our children suffered whenever we moved from one estate to another. So we decided to leave and if we are provided land we can earn our own living through farming,” she explained.
Tribal leader, Appaji, who is a gram panchayat member of Chennaiahnakote, said the alternative plots given to those evicted from the village were scattered. “We want to stay in one place as a community,” he added.
Naxals hijacking tribal agitation: Bopaiah
BJP leader, K J Bopaiah, who was in Madikeri, Kodagu on Wednesday, claimed that the tribal movement in Diddalli was being hijacked by Naxals, who were misguiding the protestors.
“Naxal supporters have occupied the teachers’ quarters at Girijana Ashrama shale in Diddalli and books and pamphlets propagating extremist ideology have been found in the toilets of the tribal school. Tribals are being taught revolutionary songs and are being indoctrinated by those who are out of jail on parole . Unless these Naxal supporters are removed from here, neither the tribals nor Kodagu is safe,” he warned.
The district administration seems alert to the presence of Naxals as anti-Naxal squads are reportedly doing the rounds of Diddalli, and CCTV cameras have been fixed in and around the venue of the tribals’ agitation to keep a close eye on it .
Meanwhile JDS Kodagu district head, Sanketh Poovaiah has begun a hunger strike before the Gandhi statue in Kodagu, demanding that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah visit the evicted tribals and amend the Forest Act to provide them land in Diddalli. On the other hand, the Kodagu Wildlife society has welcomed the forest department’s move to evict the agitating tribals from Diddalli.
We tried out best but failed, says forest official
Maintaining that the forest department has done its best to settle the dispute with the tribals demanding farmland and sites in Diddalli, Kodagu district, DCF A V Surya Sen says he personally visited them four times and invited them twice to his office and once to his home for talks.
“Though they came the talks failed. After that we tried calling them for a dialogue many times, but they were not ready to come. Every time I visited them I made it clear that the land in Diddalli was out of their reach. They accepted this and requested us to support them in their struggle with the revenue officials. It was never their demand for land in Diddalli as it was notified as a reserve forest by the Coorg Commissioner of the British Presidency in 1891. We can give forest land rights only to those who lived in the area much before December 31, 2005 under the Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers Act,” the official explained, when contacted.
As for the tribals’ claim that Diddalli was a waste-land, he said the RTC records of the revenue department called it “Aranya paisari” or forest land.” Also RTC is not a legal document for determining ownership of an already notified reserv e forest. All forest land doesn’t come under the purview of the revenue department,” he added.
