Chenchus wage losing battle in Nallamalas

Absence of road connectivity is posing a severe challenge to tribes in remote areas.

Chevula Eswaramma from the remote Nekkanti Chenchugudem village developed labour pains much before her due date, which was fixed by her gynaecologist in Yerragondapalem.

Eswaramma’s husband Chevula Anjaiah, along with his friend Dasari Guravaiah, carried her in a makeshift palanquin undeterred by the inhospitable terrain including over 20 jungle streams along the way.

However, the duo could not make it to the hospital in time due to the absence of a motorable road. Doctors too were unable to save the mother and child.

“All we want is a motorable road to take the sick to a hospital and carry our agriculture produce to the markets,” Anjaiah, who got five acres of land in the forests after enactment of the ROFR Act, told The Hindu.

Eswaramma is not the only person to face such a fate. Members of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) lead a life of subsistence, devoid of basic amenities like safe drinking water.

Rooted community

“We would be like fish out of water if we are moved out of the forests,” says a group of Chenchus who have resisted attempts by the authorities to shift them to the plains. Those who moved out to rehabilitation colonies had not been provided the promised cultivable land and many of them have returned to the forests, they add.

Acknowledging the problem, the ITDA has prepared a ₹15 crore action plan to sink bore-wells to ensure assured irrigation water to the land held by the tribals, according to its Project Officer M.K.V. Srinivas.

A survey had been taken up for construction of 56 km road from Palutla to Yerragondapalem and ₹56 crore was earmarked for the purpose. But the project could not make headway in the absence of clearance from the Forest Department.

‘Not an easy task’

“It is not an easy task to lay roads in the Nallamallas, a large stretch of undisturbed forests. As many as 20 bridges have to be designed in this case. Rallavagu when in spate changes its course every year, making the whole exercise a futile one,” explained ITDA Special Officer K. Ramakrishna.