Tamil Nadu - Nagercoil   

It is a dream come true for these residents of forest settlements

P.S. Suresh Kumar

They are a happy lot with a mechanised boat provided to a men self-help group

Nagercoil : Residents of more than 24 forest settlements in Pechipparai panchayat have expressed their happiness over the handing over of a mechanised boat to a men self-help group to go to safer place when the Pechipparai dam was full.

Pechipparai panchayat in Kanyakumari is situated in the Western Ghats of the district.

The panchayat has a population of 2,500 Kani tribals living scattered in around the 24 forest settlements.

Spread around the huge Pechipparai reservoir, built about hundred years ago, the settlements co-exist with wild animals like elephants, tiger, bear, wild boar and other animals.

Caught between the traditional forest dependent lifestyles and modernism, these tribals are in a transition. S. Rajan, a postgraduate, who is the panchayat president by virtue of the post being reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

It was a long pending demand of the Kanis that they be given a mechanised boat.

They made their demand to a team of visiting officers, who, in turn, brought it to the knowledge of the Project Officer of the District Rural Development Agency.

He agreed to consider the demand under the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana. Accordingly a self-help group of five members, required under the scheme, was formed and a grant of Rs.90,000 was released.

An equal bank loan component was facilitated and the mechanised boat purchased.

The five members were given training in operation and maintenance of the boat.

The loan was to be paid back through a period of five years. Initially, the group started ferrying passengers, which included workers going to estates within the forests apart from the tribal people, and conducting trips for tourists coming to the Pechipparai dam. On one side settlements in far flung areas could now reach out in no time and the group operating the service started earning a net profit of Rs. 10,000 a month.

The most important thing was the help rendered to schoolchildren, who so far could not attend school with inadequate facilities.

But the group soon found that regular ferrying of schoolchildren was costing them dearly as more and more children started availing the facilities and their parents were unable to pay the money, abysmally poor as they were.

The Bee Self Help Group, which operates the boat service, approached the DRDA demanding travel concessions for the tribal schoolchildren.

The matter was being taken up by DRDA at the appropriate levels of the Government.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

It is a dream come true for these residents of forest settlements

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu