TIRUNELVELI: The Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) administration stopped collecting exorbitant ticket fares from workers who travel between the hills and the plains in forest vehicles after the district administration vowed to bear the travel expenses of the flood-affected Manjolai tea estate workers.
Since the hilly roads were damaged, the workers could not use the TNSTC buses and had to rely on the forest vehicles. However, the KMTR administration charged them between Rs150-Rs200, while the workers usually paid between Rs22-40 for the government bus.
In a dramatic development, district collector KP Karthikeyan, via social media platform X, announced free van services for the tea estate workers to travel on Thursday night. However, the deputy director and wildlife warden of KMTR’s Ambasamudram division Shenbagapriya refused to accept the collector’s initiative and KMTR continued to collect the excess fare.
On Friday morning, KMTR staff stopped the van from Kallidaikurichi to the hills for nearly an hour and a half at the Manimuthar check post and forced the passengers to pay the excess fare. Through the regional transport office M Chandrasekaran, the district administration held talks with the forest personnel.
Only after the district administration assured that it would pay the government-fixed rates of Rs20 to Manjolai, `30 to Naalumukku and `40 to Oothu, as well as the diesel charges, the driver’s charges and vehicle maintenance charges, the forest department allowed the vehicle to leave around 12.40 pm.
B Regina Mary, a resident of Manjolai Hills, told TNIE, “It was very inhumane on the part of the forest department to collect exorbitant fare from the workers during the time of disaster. The Manimuthar town panchayat collects nearly Rs1,300 as annual tax; yet, it had not re-laid the road due to opposition from the forest department.”
Another local, M Jayashree, said she paid RS500 for a private vehicle to travel to the plains as her son had to be taken to the hospital. “We could not get sanitary napkins, eggs and other essentials due to lack of government transport,” said K Sivakami, another resident of the hills.
Revenue department versus forest department
When contacted by TNIE, Shenbagapriya said her administration arranged a vehicle and collected money from the passengers based on a request from the town panchayat councillors.
“The revenue department should have arranged vehicles for the passengers free of cost. We did not receive any written instruction from the collector regarding the free van service. Based on our field director’s instructions, we agreed to collect the reduced fare on Friday,” she said.
When asked why the forest department denied permission to the revenue department to repair the latter’s communication channels in the hills, Shenbagapriya said there should be proper directives concerning any act of the revenue department in forest areas.
“We are acting as per the rules,” she said, adding that ensuring the availability of essential commodities in the hills is the responsibility of the revenue department.
Speaking to TNIE, a district administration official said that despite instruction from the Forest Minister, the KMTR administration adamantly charged exorbitant fees from the workers and the district revenue officer has already taken over two vehicles of the forest department under the revenue department’s possession, as per the Disaster Management Act.
"The district collector is at the top of the hierarchy of the district administration, including the forest department’s head. The district administration intimated the forest department officials about the free van service as per the Act," said the official.