Coimbatore: Dejected by the State government and the District Administration's callousness on acting upon their long pending pleas, the indigenous tribes of Valparai have decided to hold a novel protest by walking all the way from the hilly terrain to the District Collectorate here on February 10.
Coimbatore: Dejected by the State government and the District Administration's callousness on acting upon their long pending pleas, the indigenous tribes of Valparai have decided to hold a novel protest by walking all the way from the hilly terrain to the District Collectorate here on February 10.
The representatives of 16 tribal settlements in Valparai including Kadar, Muthuvar, Pulaiyar, Irular, Malasar and Malaisar have affirmed that they will walk the 120 km stretch from Valparai to Coimbatore to meet the District Collector K Rajamani in person and submit their pleas which has fallen into deaf ears all these years.
The distressed tribals opine that after Valparai was announced as a Tiger Reserve, special forest rules and regulations came into existence. And, the foresters have been behaving authoritatively on the tribals even for unnecessary reasons. Claiming that the rights of the forest dwellers are being continually stripped away, they demanded rights and patta for their residential and agricultural land.
Notably, the Kadar tribes living along the settlements in Kallar estate have been repeatedly urging the district administration to provide them alternate space in the reserve forests, they noted.
Even the reconciliation talks which were held on Saturday at Tahsildhar office headed by MLA Kasturi Vasu, had failed. While the MLA sought 15 days time to initiate action against their pleas, the tribal representatives cited past failed timelines and questioned why they were not met?
They strongly asserted that they had lost hope in the promises made by officials and legislators hence will go ahead with their plan to walk from Valparai to Coimbatore to meet the District Collector and submit their pleas on February 10.
More than 600 tribal people are expected to take part in the rally, they added.
Valparai Legislator Kasturi Vasu, Thasildhar Venkatasalam, Police Inspector Balamurugan, Valparai Forest Officer Senthil Kumar, Manampalli Forest Guard Officer Natarajan more than 50 representatives of tribal people took part in the meeting.
The representatives of 16 tribal settlements in Valparai including Kadar, Muthuvar, Pulaiyar, Irular, Malasar and Malaisar have affirmed that they will walk the 120 km stretch from Valparai to Coimbatore to meet the District Collector K Rajamani in person and submit their pleas which has fallen into deaf ears all these years.
The distressed tribals opine that after Valparai was announced as a Tiger Reserve, special forest rules and regulations came into existence. And, the foresters have been behaving authoritatively on the tribals even for unnecessary reasons. Claiming that the rights of the forest dwellers are being continually stripped away, they demanded rights and patta for their residential and agricultural land.
Notably, the Kadar tribes living along the settlements in Kallar estate have been repeatedly urging the district administration to provide them alternate space in the reserve forests, they noted.
Even the reconciliation talks which were held on Saturday at Tahsildhar office headed by MLA Kasturi Vasu, had failed. While the MLA sought 15 days time to initiate action against their pleas, the tribal representatives cited past failed timelines and questioned why they were not met?
They strongly asserted that they had lost hope in the promises made by officials and legislators hence will go ahead with their plan to walk from Valparai to Coimbatore to meet the District Collector and submit their pleas on February 10.
More than 600 tribal people are expected to take part in the rally, they added.
Valparai Legislator Kasturi Vasu, Thasildhar Venkatasalam, Police Inspector Balamurugan, Valparai Forest Officer Senthil Kumar, Manampalli Forest Guard Officer Natarajan more than 50 representatives of tribal people took part in the meeting.