The simmering concerns over the buffer zones among the settler community in the high ranges snowballed into a major protest with hundreds of residents across the Pampa Valley and the Angel Valley villages under Erumely panchayat on Friday taking out a march against the State government.
Holding a protest march to the forest range office at Ezhukumannu, the protesters removed a direction board installed by the forest office along the way, smeared it with black oil and dumped it on the premises of the Range Office.
Voice clip
The residents have been protesting ever since the satellite survey conducted by the State government identified the area as falling within forest area. However, the immediate trigger for the protest was a voice clip circulating on social media, attributed to the secretary of Erumely panchayat, reportedly stating that filling of proforma to exclude lands from the buffer zones was not going to work.
On the basis of a complaint lodged by G. Ajikumar, Forest Range Officer of Pampa, Erumely police have registered a case against the protesters. Later in the day, the protesters staged a demonstration in front of the Erumely grama panchayat office as well.
In view of the protests, the Erumely grama panchayat on Friday convened an emergency meeting and decided to start geo-tagging of private properties in wards 11 to 14.
“While ward 11 (Angel Valley) and 12 (Pampavalley) have been marked as forest areas, wards 13 and 14 (Mookkenpetty and Kanamala) come under buffer zone limits. In this backdrop, we have decided to complete geo-tagging of these wards to identify the houses, shrines, schools and all other structures within three days,” said Thankamma Georgekutty, president, Erumely grama panchayat.
The local body, meanwhile, will also explore the possibility of impleading itself in the buffer zone case before the Supreme Court. “It is learnt that one panchayat has already impleaded in this case. A legal opinion will be sought in this regard,” she added.
Challenging the findings
In view of the assurances from the local body council, the protesters dispersed.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 persons from the two villages here have submitted the pro forma challenging the findings of the satellite survey. Preliminary estimates by the panchayat suggested that there were at least eight shrines, one school, one health centre and four anganwadis functioning in these two villages.
The two villages abutting the forests turned into human settlements during the late 1940’s when the erstwhile Travancore government launched the ‘Grow More Food’ scheme , prompting settler farmers to enter the region and start cultivation.
