Tribespeople coming out demanding the construction of a road connecting the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve with the outer world through the Nelliyampathy hill ranges, without entering the Pollachi region of Tamil Nadu, has put the Forest Department on a sticky wicket. The project had been shelved earlier as an environmental impact assessment study had clearly stated that the project involved diversion of vast tracts of forestland for non-forest purposes.
Residents of four tribal settlements in the Allimooppan region just outside the tiger reserve area organised a massive protest on Thursday demanding the construction of the road saying that it would provide them access to health-care and educational facilities. Over 250 members of the traditional forest-dwelling communities blocked the road between Chemmanampathy and Nelliyampathy for the entire day demanding road construction.
It is for the first time that tribals are coming out in the open demanding a direct road link between Parambikulam and Nelliyampathy.
Forest Department officials feel that the protest has the backing of the local units of the ruling CPI(M) and CPI, which are keen on reviving the proposal to lay the 40-km road.
The project shelved by the United Democratic Front government four years ago, following objections raised by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), got a new lease of life last week when Tamil Nadu officials started blocking vehicles bound for Parambikulam at the Sethumadai check-post, near Pollachi, following altercations between Kerala forest officials and the PWD employees of Tamil Nadu.
Roundabout routeThough Parambikulam forms part of the 11th ward of Muthalamada grama panchayat, people have to travel 28 km into the Pollachi region to re-enter the Kerala territory, and that too, depending on the permission from Tamil Nadu’s Anamalai Tiger Reserve authorities.
According to tribal leader M. Chandran, who led the protest, children of the tribal hamlets are forced to study in residential tribal schools accessible only by travelling by road for about 100 km because of the lack of a direct road link. “Emergency health-care facilities are also remaining inaccessible because of the prevailing situation. We need the road at any cost,” he said, adding that the tribespeople living within the reserve too would join them soon for the protest.
P.K. Biju, MP, and K. Babu, MLA, have already written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to convene a meeting to discuss the project.
Greens, TN opposeEnvironmentalists and Tamil Nadu have opposed the project saying that it would affect the environment and disrupt flow into waterbodies which are part of the Parambikulam-Aliyar project.
