The Centre for Tribal Education, Development and Research (Thampu) in a memorandum to the Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh, has demanded that the traditional farming of the Attappadi tribals be revived so that they can consume more nutritious food.
It said that the tribal population in the area faced three types of land issues which included the alienation of the tribal lands, its scarcity and the encroachment by the forest department in tribal areas. It pointed out that as per the 1977 survey of the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP), 10,159 acres of land has been alienated.
National land reform council member and Ektha parishad leader P V Rajagopal had conducted a land adalath from April 2 to 4, 2009 in which 810 petitions were received which indicated that 20,000 acres of land had been alienated. The president of Thampu pointed out that inspite of ten High Court verdicts and one Supreme Court verdict, tribals have not been able to regain ownership of their lost land.
In Attappadi, the tribals who own land lack basic infrastructure for agriculture. This problem also had to be solved in order to make life sustainable in tribal hamlets. It was pointed out that the Forest Rights Act that came into effect in 2006 has not been implemented effectively in Kerala. Individual rights and community rights which were the highlights of this act has to be implemented among primitive tribes like Kurumba, Irula and Muduga who live in this area. Among the 43 infant deaths reported in the last 15 months, 90 per cent belonged to the Irula tribe. Thus, Thampu pointed out that only after the land is returned to the tribal people and the agriculture operations revived , will the problems be solved.