Wednesday, Feb 26, 2003
Wednesday, Feb 26, 2003 |
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Kerala
By G. Prabhakaran
The Government had identified 4,135 tribal families as landless and 1,096 families holding negligible areas of land in the Attappady tribal area of the district. The district administration proposed to give 3895.68 hectares of land from the vested forest to the State Government. But the State Government did not get the required clearance for the forest land from the Central Government as the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 does not permit to use forest land for non-forestry purposes. According to the officials here, at least 4,866 acres of land are required to provide small areas of land to the landless tribal families. But the Government has got just 312 acres of land under it acquired for the Attappady Valley Irrigation Project (AVIP). The district administration had send a proposal to distribute this land to the landless tribals. But the State Government has not taken any decision on the matter for the last one- and-a-half years. During the tenure of the previous LDF Government, 475 tribal families were allotted 524.53 hectors of land in Sholayur, Attappady. But this excluded tract got into a dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu over ownership. Hence, the tribals of Attappady did not get any land under the five-year rule of the LDF Government and the 20-months rule of the present UDF Government led by A. K. Antony who promised land to all land less families within one year under the Tribal Mission scheme. The tribals were once the owners of vast tracts of land near the forest where they lived. According to a `Survey Report of Tribal Lands and Collection of Data of the Tribals of I.T.D.P (integrated Tribal Development Project), Attappady', published by the Government in 1982, the tribes of Attappady lost 10106.19 acres of land just for an amount of around Rs. 3 lakhs. The 961-page survey report gives details of hamlet-wise, tribes-wise, panchayat-wise and village-wise details of the land alienated and the details as to whom it got alienated and on what considerations. The land alienation took place in Attappady between 1960 and 1977. Some of the examples of land alienation listed in the survey report says for example Rootan, son of Karuppan, lost 1.5 acres of land for an amount of Rs. 25 he had taken from a cooperative society in 1973. Muddan, son of Anndi of Kozhikkodam hamlet, lost his 5.3 acres of land for Rs. 30 in 1970. Marathan, son of Reshan of the same hamlet, sold 3 acres of land for Rs.50 in 1965. Maniyan, son of Rangan sold 12.5 acres of land to clear a debt of Rs.50 in 1958. Thus, the survey report documents the true story of how the tribals lost their land, resulting in a situation in which they have become virtual slaves in the hands of marauding invaders. The report presents a shocking picture of the tragedy that had befallen the people of Attappady. The Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction on Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated Land) Act, 1975, which restored the lost land to the tribals, now stands annulled. This followed the passing of an amendment to it unanimously by the State Assembly during the previous LDF rule. With this, the hope of restoring the alienated land to the tribals was totally lost. The court orders to restore the alienated tribal land were not implemented by the successive Governments and now the law itself is gone.
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