Beneath the brightness lies a murky truth. The sylvan looks of the jungles tend to camouflage the dark reality one section of its residents has been facing for a while now.
A southward journey from east-central Kerala’s Kaikatty off the Nelliyampathy hills will lead you to spectacular plantations of coffee, pepper and areca nut. The climate in Palakkad district’s Thoothampara estate is salubrious. The air is calm, the terrain unspoilt. After all, it’s adjacent to the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary.
Scratch the layer of romance, and one harsh reality pops up: the 351.36-acre estate is facing a serious problem due to uncertainty in its management. The victims are the families of 19 employees — they have no regular jobs even after working here for decades and making this their home. A job change in the same trade would mean uprooting, because working in the nearest estate would entail a walk of 16 km up and down everyday through the forest. In short, they are stuck.
Trouble started two years ago when the state government took over the estate from a Travancore-based establishment. The forest department annexed Thoothampara from the Tiruvalla-founded Poabsons Group on July 15, 2007, after the 99-year lease period ended. The decision then was to hand it over to the state’s plantation corporation, but the central government didn’t clear the ordinance.
That spelt the doom for the estate workers. “Our work anyway depends on the season (of the crops). I’ve been idle for three months,” shrugs Palanimala, who has been working in the estate for 20 years. “My son is a daily-wage watcher in the estate; somehow we manage to survive.”
The vintage estate, the 50-year-old avers, is the best he has seen in the whole stretch. “The government can make a lot of money if it is run well,” he notes. But who will run it is now the big question.
S Guruvayurappan, coordinator (southern region) of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, says Thoothampara should be included in the Parambikulam sanctuary. “Given the estate comes under the core area of Parambikulam and the frequent wildlife presence in the area, it’s high time Thoothampara became a reserve area,” he suggests. “In that case, they can work as forest guards and watchers. There’ll be more tourist inflow, it’ll benefit the government.”
Palanimala’s son Manikantan does not agree. “Tourism will spoil the atmosphere. If the place is serene now, it’s because this is a permitted area.”
Rugmini, another worker, says she has been jobless since the onset of the monsoon. “Once the coffee season ends, we don’t get work,” she says. “My husband is toiling in another estate. Already our bill at the grocery store is rising. He wants the family to join him, but where will we stay?”
Workers fear if they leave for another estate, they will lose their accommodation facility — something that all employers in the field don’t offer. Most of the labourers have been living in Thoothampara for quite a long time — none of them not less than 10 years. “When the company (Poabsons) was running the estate, we used to be taken care of. There were PF and gratuity,” says Karthyayani, a senior worker in the estate.
When the LDF government appropriated Thoothampara, the move
invited praise from many. “The politicians and the labour unions are the main problem creators. They are puppets in the hands of the private estate groups,” says Suresh, a resident of Nenmara downhill. “They will block all development activities to protect their own interests. The estate workers should stop listening to them.”
Suresh, nonetheless, isn’t keen to blame it on chief minister V S Achuthanandan. “He cleared all those illegal constructions in Munnar (in Idukki district two years ago). I feel the Plantation Corporation should take over Thoothampara. It will help the workers get regular jobs.”
A close look at the history of the corporation, however, shows its poor record in managing such estates. “If the government gives the power to the corporation,” maintains Guruvayurappan, “then the Thoothampara estate will face the same fate as the nearby Rosary estate.”
A senior officer in the forest department, who has led a lot of eviction drives successfully, says the forest department’s job is “to preserve, not manage”. Unwilling to be named, he adds the government should find an amicable solution at the earliest. “Prolonged uncertainty will lead to a number of other issues. Then the tragedy would be bigger than the plight of a few workers,” he says.
— mtsaju@yahoo.com