For the 40 Irula families living at Vagapanai in Kengarai along the Kil Kotagiri slopes, existence is an uphill struggle. They have to walk seven kilometres from their village to reach the nearest bus stop or access basic amenities, including healthcare.
As it takes more than six hours to travel to the nearest town and return home, many have moved out from the village over the last few years. The rest have given up farming their ancestral land, unable to transport their produce to markets in the towns.
M. Rangan, 28, a resident, is working as a tea estate laborer. He says residents have to leave the village at. 5.30 a.m. for catching the bus at Kotada Estate at 8 a.m. The next bus to the town is only at 10 a.m. “If we arrive after dusk, it becomes dangerous to trek to the village because of the presence of the wildlife, including elephants, gaur and sloth bear.”
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Residents still transport small quantities of coffee and cotton that grow around their village, but they have by and large given up agriculture because of the difficulty in transporting the produce, adds B. Karamadai, who also works in the nearby tea estate.
Halammal, a mother of a child, says there are around 20 children from the village. They all have to live, separated from their parents, in hostels and with relatives to go to school. “It’s very difficult to live away from our children, but this is our home,” she says.
Residents also have to carry people requiring medical treatment on stretchers fashioned from cloth and bamboo.
J. Murugan, Kengarai village panchayat president, has appealed for a road to the Collector as well as the Director and Secretary of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, besides the Minister for Forest.
“It is feasible to lay a road measuring 3.8 kilometres to minimise the walking distance for residents from the current seven kilometres to just 1-2 kilometres,” he says.
Mr. Murugan says he has helped to get piped water supply at a cost of ₹14 lakh with sponsorship funds. He wants residents to find livelihoods near the village that they have occupied for hundreds of years. “They have lived with nature and are the guardians of the forest. I hope the government listens to our repeated demand for a road, so that they can once again resume farming and growing crops in their own land and once again find livelihoods near their village.”
K. Mahendran, an Adivasi rights activist from the Nilgiris, says the government has an opportunity to ensure that education reaches even the most remote settlements with a road. “The people want to send their children to school, but are hamstrung by the lack of road connectivity. Not a single person in this village has gone to college.” A road extending closer to the village will improve the quality of life of all residents by bringing more essential services nearer their village.
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