The interim stay order granted by the Madras High Court on a notification of the Nilgiri District Collector in 1991 declaring 4,000 hectares of agriculture land as private forests under the Tamil Nadu Private Forest Preservation Act of 1949, gives fresh hope to Keralite farmers in Gudallur, Pandallur and Ootacamund taluks in Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu.
Talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, Fr. George Padinjaryil, lawyer and spokesman of the farmers, said the Court had granted the interim stay order on July 5 on a petition filed by him and 14 others against the notification issued by Leena Nair, the former Nilgiri District Collector, in 1991.
He said the land was owned by about 8,000 farmers who had got the deed (patta) on their land as per the ‘Gudallur Taluk Janmam Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari Act' of Tamil Nadu State of 1969. However, according to the notification in 1991, all the ‘patta' land of the farmers, majority of it belonging to Keralite farmers and tribesmen, was declared private forests, Fr. George said.
The government froze the implementation of the notification till 2009 owing to protests by the farmers against the notification. But Anand Rao Patil, District Collector, Nilgiri district, in 2009 directed the Revenue Department personnel to stop the registration process of the land as part of implementing the notification issued in 1991.
According to the new notification, the farmers had lost their ownership over the property and could not sell or hand over the property. Though many agitations were held against the notification recently, the government was yet to take any action, he added.
Hence, Jose Mar Porunnedom, Bishop, Mananthavadi Diocese, took up the issue and as per his directive, the petitioners approached the court to quash the notification of 1991, Fr. George said.
