The State government's decision to resurvey land in Attappady draws flak from a tribal chieftain and a tribal organisation which fear that it will only help land encroachers such as multinational real estate firms and windmill companies.
Thothi Mooppan, tribal head of the Bhuthivazhy hamlet at Agali grama panchayat, told The Hindu that there is no need of any resurvey in Attappady as the tribes in the hills have had land records and pattayams in their favour under surveys conducted earlier. Their land has been forcibly taken over by some real estate companies to put up windmills and these encroachers should be evicted and the land restored to the tribes.
“Instead of doing that, the government has announced a resurvey of the entire land in the Attappady Hills. This will only help the encroachers because in a resurvey, only the present status of the occupant of land will be recorded, and this will go in favour of the encroachers and result in the tribes, the original owners, losing their land,” the Mooppan adds.
He says the ‘Survey Report of Tribal Lands and Collection of Data of the Tribals by Integrated Tribal Development Project' of 1982 shows that the tribes had lost 10,796.19 acres of land in Attappady since 1960. The government, instead of going for another resurvey, should take action based on this survey and restore the alienated land to the tribes. They have got back just two acres of land, as against 10,796.19 acres.
Revenue Divisional Officer, Ottappalam, under whose jurisdiction falls the Attappady firka, had received 2,422 applications for restoration of land in 1996. In 13 cases, an area of 44.77 acre has been ordered for restoration and in many cases proceedings have been completed. But the tribes have not got the actual alienated land so far, says Attappady Samrakshana Samithy president M. Sukumaran.
Mr. Sukumaran says the windmills have been put at Kottathara village which has land survey records. These records show that the entire land belongs to the tribes. This land has been usurped by the windmill companies.
A report of the District Collector and the Revenue Divisional Officer, Ottappalam, has found that the tribal land at Kottathara village has been usurped by some real estate companies to put up the windmills, he says.
