VILLUPURAM: Nearly 900 police personnel were on Sunday deployed in Nadukuppam and nearby Periya Kottakuppam falling under Kottakuppam municipality limits of the district as a clash broke out on Saturday evening between a section of Dalit residents and local fishers following the latter allegedly preventing the former from accessing a community burial ground to perform the final rites of a deceased neighbour.
While no case has been registered in connection with the clash, Minister for Social Justice Vanni Arasu said a peace meeting involving all stakeholders has been scheduled on Monday, which would take place at the district collectorate.
According to sources, more than 500 Adi Dravidar families reside in Periya Kottakuppam. The community has an unfenced burial ground near Nadukuppam fishing hamlet, along the seashore. A few years ago, fishers began encroaching upon the burial ground to park their boats.
With petitions to the district administration urging action against the encroachers hardly yielding any results, the Dalit residents said they moved the Madras High Court which in August 2025 directed the authorities concerned to remove the boats from the burial ground.
The fishers, however, oppose the removal of their boats from the burial ground and also staged protests in April. Against this backdrop, Bhoomilingam (76) from the Dalit locality died on Friday night.
On Saturday evening, his relatives and neighbours took the body to the burial ground in Nadukuppam to perform the last rites. The local fishers, however, objected to the burial and attacked the SC members with stones and sticks. Some houses nearby, as well as a few police personnel present there, also came under attack, sources said.
Later, the Dalits carried the body in a bier to the ECR a few hundred metres away and staged a road blockade, demanding action against those involved in the attack and a permanent solution to row.
With traffic on the arterial stretch disrupted for two hours, the police led by Villupuram Range DIG A Arularasu and revenue officials engaged talks with the protesters. Following this, the crowd dispersed and Bhoomilingam’s last rites were performed at the burial ground itself.
On Sunday, Minister Vanni Arasu visited the affected residents and also inspected the burial ground alongside a team of police and revenue officials. Addressing media persons, the minister said that the burial ground, measuring 43 cents, has been encroached upon and added that steps will be taken to retrieve it.
