Toda community meet collector for house construct
Udhagamandalam: Demanding permission to construct houses on land reportedly reserved for them at Mullimund near here, members of the Toda tribal community on Monday made a representation to the Nilgiris Collector, Santosh K. Misra.They were led by their chieftain Adayal Kuttan. He pointed out that several decades ago the government had earmarked 61 acres at Mullimund-Avalanchi for grazing their buffaloes. When an attempt was made in 1982 by some non-Todas to occupy the land, forest officials had prevented them stating that it was a grazing ground. Later to keep land grabbers at bay, the Forest Department had been maintaining it.However late in April when some Todas commenced work on putting up a structure at Mullimund, they were prevented by forest officials with the help of police. A shack put up as part of the construction activity was pulled down. He claimed that the action of the forest officials had upset them.Pointing out that normally Todas do not adopt a confrontationist approach, he said that if the matter was not settled amicably they would resort to peaceful form of protest like observing fast.Mr. Misra assured them that appropriate action would be taken in consultation with the forest officials. Among those present were the members of the Tamil Nadu Tribal Welfare Board, A. Sathiya Raj and the CPI (M) district secretary, L. Thiagaraj.Meanwhile, the District Forest Officer, the Nilgiris South Division, Rakesh Kumar Jagenia, told The Hindu that since the shack had been put on forest land, preventive measures had been taken.Stating that the tribals wanted to cultivate crops on forest land, he said that it formed part of the Kundah Reserve Forest.The records pertaining to the land had also been shown to them. Pointing out that they had only been evicted, he said that no disrespect was shown to them.
