“Farming on this land began before our birth, 70 or 80 years ago. There was no issue until recently when the Forest Department officials came and asked us to stop farming here. They threatened to arrest us if we entered the land. There are three of them guarding the land now. Our houses were on the river banks when our ancestors began farming. Later we were driven out of that land,” said Ayyappan, a tribal farmer in Wayanad’s Mullenkolly.
The tribal community’s dependency on landless farming is entangled in uncertainty after the Forest Department restricted them from entering forest land to carry out farming and placed notice boards to this effect amidst their fields. The Department’s move – coming right during the primary growth period of the crop – has left the farmers helpless. The farmers had sowed the seeds for paddy cultivation and it was time for them to do the replanting.
The tribal farmers, who belong to the Paniya community, have been farming generationally on this land. Historically forced into bonded labour, the community members are neither landed nor hold absolute power on forest land. Twenty-four farmers have written to the Pulpally Tribal Extension Officer and the District Collector asking for their intervention in the issue.
“We have been cultivating rice in the forest land for years now. This year too, we sowed the seeds and now the seeds are up for replanting. When we started tilling the land for the replanting, Forest department officials came and asked us to stop the work. They say we shouldn’t do farming on this land. The majority of Forest Department land is paddy fields. We farm here only once a year. We request you to obtain permission for us to continue farming,” reads the application.
According to the Forest Department, the 35 hectares of land is reserve forest and property of the government. The officials said the new restriction is to prevent non-tribal people from cultivating on forest land.
Forest Department noice board in the middle of a field
Biju, another farmer, explained, “We have been farming on this forest land for almost half a decade. We don’t have ownership over any land. We are provided five cents of land, but we don’t hold any title. The piece of land is enough only to cultivate rice. We go through a lot of difficulties for this. We arrange the finance, we do the fencing and guard the crop ourselves for six months, and only then we get the paddy. The seeds alone cost Rs 2,000. Now when they are ready for replanting, the Forest Department’s intervention is blocking us from continuing. Since the start of the pandemic we don’t have any work, so we started farming. Each year we propagate different types of seeds. This year we propagated Valichoori, last year it was IR 20, Kanchana, etc. Since irrigation is a difficult process, we farm only in the monsoon. We can’t depend on the river water for cultivation because it drains in the summer.”
When TNM visited Mullenkolly, the farmers also pointed out that most of the houses in their colony are in a bad condition. Many of the 150 families in the colony live in makeshift tents. Though construction of new houses for the community began in 2016 on funds allotted by the Scheduled Tribes Development Department, none of them have been completed.
Biju said their complaints about the unfinished houses have gone unheard. “After a contractor is given the contract to build houses, there is no follow-up regarding the progress. For the past two years we are seeing several houses under construction but not much progress. Unless the District Collector or the tribal extension officer look into it, we’ll be unable to do anything,” he said.
Pulpally forest range officer Sunil, who has been assigned to investigate the issue, reiterated to TNM that the restriction was put in place to prevent non-tribal people from farming on forest land. He said that the move was based on complaints received regarding the same but refused to disclose more details. The officer said that the Department is planning to set up a Vana Samrakshana Samithi (Forest Protection Committee), which would create employment opportunities for the tribal youths.
Vijayan, Mullenkolly panchayat’s seventh ward member, told TNM that the farmers will not be able to complete the current crop cycle as he doesn’t believe there is any chance of the Forest Department relaxing the restriction. He said the Department is likely to allow the tribal people to do farming next year, at least in some parts of the land, adding that attempts are being made to have talks with the Department. Vijayan said that he will follow up on the complaints filed against the contractor in charge of the house construction. He blamed the Scheduled Tribes Development Department for not paying enough attention to the construction of the houses.
Ayyappan, however, denied the Forest Department’s claim that non-tribal people are engaged in farming on the land in question. He also said that the ward member hadn’t visited the spot even once after the incident.
Mrudula Bhavani is a freelance journalist based in Kerala.