A Dalit family in Enadimangalam panchayat in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district has alleged that the police, the district administration and the local body ruled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has failed to act on a complaint regarding illegal cutting down trees in the property owned by them. While some of the trees were cut in May this year, based on a report by the Forest range officer and a directive by the District Collector, the family has alleged that the neighbour Raju Varghese illegally chopped off trees from the compound in 2021.
According to a complaint filed by Athulya Rajan before the Commissioner for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes in Kerala, the trees were chopped off from a plot of land measuring 5.75 cents owned by her mother Girija, a widow and non-resident Keralite. Girija has three children - Sabari Girja Rajan, president of Ambedkarite Students Union (ASU), University of Hyderabad, Athulya Rajan and Ananthu, a BA Fine Arts student.
Athulya Rajan and Ananthu, her younger brother, realised that the trees in the compound had been illegally cut when they went to register their votes on April 6, 2021, during the Kerala Assembly elections. While their family owns the property, Athulya and Ananthu do not reside in the panchayat and have been staying at a rented house in Adoor, which is 12km away. While Girija stays in a Gulf country, where she works, Sabari, a research scholar, is based in Hyderabad.
Addressing a press conference at the Pathanamthitta Press Club on May 26, 2023, Athulya alleged that the trees including Teak and Mahogany were cut off by their neighbour Raju Varghese in 2021.
The complaint filed by them said all large trees in the compound were cut off including the trunks. While smaller trees were cut from the middle, all the chopped branches were shifted out of the compound, causing them loss. “Raju Varghese had told us that it was done by him. He told the other neighbours that he was cutting the trees for us with our consent and they believed it,” Athulya alleged while addressing the press conference.
Ananthu filed a complaint with the Panchayat on April 6, 2021, but no action has been taken by the local body on it so far. They also filed a police complaint in Adoor police station on November 7, 2021 but the police too failed to act on it, the family alleged. After these complaints were filed, Raju Varghese approached the panchayat claiming that the trees in the compound were a threat to his property. He also continuously harassed them over the phone with requests to cut them, the family alleged. According to Athulya, they had been regularly trimming the two teak trees which stand in the boundary of the compound every year and were not a threat to the neighbour’s house as alleged.
Athulya said she filed complaints with the RDO on August 12, 2022 and with the District Collector on August 30, 2022 highlighting the facts but did not receive a resolution. A representative of the Konni Forest Ranger and officers of the panchayat visited the spot on October 19, 2022 based on a directive by the District Collector but they received the intimation regarding this only a day later on WhatsApp.
Athulya also alleged that Panchayat President Raju Tharayil of the CPI(M) and Panchayat Secretary Sunil B have taken a stand in favour of the neighbour and ignored the family’s plight.
The complaint filed by Athulya said loopholes in the law were utilised by the panchayat authorities to serve the vested interest of their neighbour. As students hailing from a Scheduled Caste family, with their only parent abroad, they were not able to deal with the continuous harassment meted out to them, it said.
Panchayat Secretary Sunil B told TNM that the local body had taken steps to cut off branches of a teak tree after they found that there was substance in the complaint by Raju Varghese. Branches of another teak tree were bundled together using iron rods. ”Later, a complaint by Raju Varghese came up at ‘Karuthalum Kaithangum’ (taluk-level complaint redressal adalats launched by the Left government) chaired by the Revenue Minister. The complaint was examined by a Forest Range Officer who recommended cutting off the tree. The District Collector issued a directive to act upon the official’s report. The panchayat acted following rules,” he said.
Sunil said a notice was issued to the family to cut off the tree but they didn’t oblige. “We didn’t wait for the SC/ST commission order as there were no restrictions on cutting the trees. The monsoon will begin soon. Some other trees on the property fell off in the recent rains,” he said.