NILGIRIS: Residents of Gandhinagar in O-Valley near Gudalur appealed to the district administration to provide alternate land if the forest department took over their alleged land.
After a meeting on Sunday, they said close to 3,000 families will be affected if the department takes control of their land under section 53 of the Forest Act.
T Sukumaran, president of the Public Farmers Protection Association, said, “More than 250 families, who are Sri Lankan repatriates, have been cultivating coffee, pepper, tea, areca nut and various vegetables in and around O-Valley for last four decades. Now the Gudalur forest department is trying to take over the land. We seek district collector SP Amrith’s intervention to issue patta or alternative land to sustain our livelihood since there was no prior announcement by the forest department to include the land under Section 53 and Section 16A of the Forest Act.”
Sukumaran said senior police personnel asked the residents to take part in another meeting with revenue and forest department heads on September 8 to find a peaceful solution to the issue.