As many as 202 members of Tamil Nadu Tribals’ Association (TNTA), including 88 women and eight children, were arrested for blocking road in front of the Collectorate here on Thursday in protest against any move to extend the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) in Kanyakumari district.
Presiding over the agitation, P. Dillibabu, Harur M.L.A. and treasurer of TNTA, spoke against the move to expand the KMTR in the Western Ghats where 47 settlements of Kani tribals are situated. The TNTA and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would not allow expansion of KMTR, as it would mean eviction of Kani tribals living in 47 settlements in the foothills of the Western Ghats for generations. The TNTA apprehended that 20,136 hectares of land would be brought under KMTR, if it was expanded in the district.
If the authorities took the proposal forward, the TNTA would organise an agitation to stall it. The government, he said, should strictly implement the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006. Fourteen States, including the neighbouring Kerala, had implemented the Act. Fishing rights of tribal people, enshrined in the Act, were denied by the government by allowing private persons fish in major dams such as Chitrar I, Chitrar II, Pechiparai and Perunchani, Mr. Dillibabu said.
Earlier, Mr. Dillibabu, along with the district secretary of TNTA S.R. Sekar and CPI (M) district secretary N. Murugesan, met Collector Sajjansingh R. Chavan and submitted a memorandum.
The arrested members of TNTA and CPI (M) were released in the evening.
