The economic make-over of the households in the purple-tinged Jawadhu hills is unmistakable.
Traditional thatched huts are giving way to pucca houses with wide footpaths. Almost all the households in several tribal viĺlages now have one or more motorcycles. At some houses, SUVs are parked in the front.
Essentially an agrarian community with millet as its backbone, the villagers can’t explain the change in comfort levels. Asked for reason, many elders in the community said their sons were working in Kerala.
It is not a closely guarded secret in the community though. Lured by the quick money offered by brokers, the agile tribal youth have taken to the red sander smuggling the past few years, a few locals do admit.
Interaction with a cross-section of villagers reveals that scores of youth have been frequenting the Andhra Pradesh forests.
According to the villagers, a tree cutter would earn anywhere around Rs.50,000 in a single trip to Thirumala forests (where the shootout had taken place on Tuesday morning).
“They are being paid based on weight of the wood cut by them and they are unable to resist the offer,” says a local teacher.
“The kingpins of the smuggling have middlemen in every village to recruit the youth from here. Once they return home from a trip, the money due for them would be paid at their doorstep,” he says.
Tiruvannamalai Collector A. Gnanasekaran also admits that the middlemen were luring the tribal youth.
“Even families usually think that their sons have gone to Kerala for work,” says K. Saminathan, Kanamalai panchayat president. “It is a secret between them and the middlemen,” he adds.
When asked why the youngsters of Jawadhu hills are the preferred woodcutters, an activist with a Vellore-based NGO says that apart from the stamina of the tribal youths, the generational experience they have had in tree cutting makes them the most suitable for the task.
In the recent sensitisation programmes, officials from Andhra Pradesh police also participated and explained the danger. Now, the district administration plans to crack the whip on middlemen with full force.
