Displaced Kerala adivasis vow fight to finish

ONE OF THE TRIBE: With activists lending support, the Adivasis have become more determined to fight back.

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Thiruvananthapuram: On tree-tops with nooses around their neck, on the ground with kerosene cans and lighters in their hands - the Adivasis in Chengara think these are the most effective way to stop the state machinery from evicting them.

About 5,000 families, mostly from the Adivasi and backward communities, have laid claim to 1,048 acres of this rubber estate, setting up makeshift shelters .

Shanmugham and his wife Saramma stay in one of these temporary homes.

“We have never had a single piece of land all our life,” says Saramma.

The land belonged to the private firm Harrison Malayalam, whose lease agreement with the government ended in 1996.

The Adivasis started occupying it since August 2007. The High Court has now directed the government to evict them before March 7.

But with activists like Arundhati Roy turning up for support , the Adivasis have become more determined to stay .

“The Vedi's struggle here has many a similarity with the struggle at Nandirgam in West Bengal. The administration will say this is illegal and will attack these innocent people. But am expressing my full support to these people's struggle,” says Roy.

The LDF government does not want to repeat the Muthanga incident of 2003 where five Adivasis died in a police firing on encroachers .

Which is why it has approached the High Court expressing its inability to evict the Adivasis.