"This is what we wanted... always... and this road is almost like a 'dream-come-true' moment but we feel it doesn’t serve the purpose". The feeling of being let down reflected in the voice of tribespeople in Anaipallam was obvious despite realising the dream of their first road, a basic amenity, to the tribal hamlet.
A road connecting Pillur Mattam and Anaipallam was a long-standing demand of the tribes after an incident in 2019 when nine tribesmen were struck by lightning and needed emergency medical aid. Despite police and forest department officials reaching the spot, it took 17 hours for an ambulance to arrive and rescue the injured ones because there was no proper road. After three years, the Anaipallam residents have the road connection but many feel that it is too narrow, and in the absence of public transport, not much useful.
Anaipallam, an Irula tribal village with 65 families, is located eight kilometres away from Pillur Mattam in Coonoor taluk of Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. TNM spoke to tribespeople from Anaipallam region and activists in the area to understand why the people are not entirely happy about the new road.
The tribal population here have been living in this area for hundreds of years bereft of basic amenities and face many struggles to access nearby towns. As it takes more than 10 hours to travel from their place and return to their hamlets, many wanted to move out of their ancestral villages.
Irula tribes of these villages earn their livelihoods from pepper, coffee, and jackfruit cultivation and honey hunting. To market the minor forest products, they need to walk up and down the forest, which has the presence of Indian gaurs, sloth bears, elephants, and tigers. In the absence of proper road facilities, during medical emergencies, reaching the hospitals on time is a herculean task, here. People who need medical care including pregnant women are carried in improvised cloth stretchers and some have died while being transported.
Ambulance carrying patients on the unpaved road in 2019
After the 2019 incident, then Nilgiris collector Innocent Divya inspected the village and initiated the road construction between Pillur Mattam and Anaipallam. The project costing Rs 6 crore was completed after three years. Residents from Chinnala Kombai now want the district administration to extend this road connection by another 3km so that it connects their hamlet. They also want the administration to expand the road’s width so that mini buses could be operated.
"Our elders walked back and forth to the town to sell ragi and millets by carrying them as headloads. Forty years ago they deployed donkeys to carry construction materials for houses. We cannot imagine this scenario now. The unpaved roads are good up to 4km from the Pillur Mattam on non-rainy days. The trucks used to halt on the unpaved road and we had to carry the load on our shoulders to reach the trucks. The new road would reduce the drudgery. But still, our kids have to stay in the residential schools and villagers will not be able to return quickly as there are no buses on this route. What is the point of having a road which serves no purpose?" asks a resident from Anaipallam.
The road, according to some residents, won’t serve the purpose since it is narrow and can only be used by autos and two-wheelers. “It might help tourists who want to explore the Nilgiris. A minibus cannot be operated on this route. People who have money can hire autos. But for the tribal people, it is expensive,” says the resident.
The residents of tribal villages are fine walking up and down for hours but are wary of tea and coffee estates in the stretch, which are not maintained properly. “Wild animals have made these estates their homes and we risk our lives to walk on this stretch. In 2021, Mari Chellan, a tribesman heading home, was trampled to death by a wild elephant,” he says. Incidents of human-wildlife conflict is high in the stretch and after dusk, auto drivers too won’t accept any rides to their place despite the road.
"Around 500 people are living in this area. The road connects Pillur Mattam only up to Anaipallam. The villages of Chinnala Kombai, Keezh Kurangumedu, Melkurangumedu and Mallikorai villages are located within a three km radius. But the terrain makes it impossible to connect to other tribal villages by this road. This is the only downside of the road. I'm working in the Pillur Mattam area and now it takes only 20 minutes to reach my home by two-wheeler. I'm really happy that the administration finally put the cement road to our settlement" said one of the local residents, who works in a government department.
A risky walk through the forest
JR Mani, a Coonoor-based tribal activist, said a road is the only essential service that brings government officials to tribal hamlets. "In Nilgiris, roads bring fair price shops, electricity, water, and schools closer to tribal hamlets. If there is no road, then there is nothing. More than 20 tribal hamlets are still in need of roads. Some villages have road connections but no bus service. The administration has told us that bus services are impossible citing the reason that the roads are narrow and have more curves. Once the Sengal Kombai tribal village had 60 families but now there are only15 families. All of them moved out of their ancestral hamlets as villages are located in remote areas on hilly terrains and access to modern-day needs like schools and health care services are almost impossible,” says JR Mani.
Tribespeople have community land in Kaval Kombai near Kallar, where they cultivate millets and other crops, but have to walk inside the dense forest to reach the spot. Considering the plight, many tribal families stopped doing agriculture and eventually migrated to the nearest towns and cities in the search of employment, says Mani. Besides school and employment, development in inaccessible areas is out of question. Even constructing a house in tribal hamlets involves a lot of struggles as there is no road to transport construction materials. “The administration should consider the possibilities of providing the basic amenities to the tribal hamlets,'' says Mani.