Amid speculation that the Central decision to implement some of the proposals of the K Kasturirangan committee for the protection of Western Ghats could lead to political realignments in Kerala, violence continued for the second day on Saturday over the issue in the State’s settler-dominated areas which had witnessed arson and intense stone-pelting on Friday.
The police on Saturday initiated cases against over 1,500 people for Friday’s violence in Thamarassery in Kozhikode district known for its large population of settlers. Twelve people were arrested while police and Forest officials said that the violence had been pre-planned and perpetrated by elements belonging to quarry and forest mafias and not by protesting farmers.
Isolated incidents of violence were reported during Saturday’s 12-hour shutdown in the mountainous Idukki and Wayanad districts, called to protest against the Central move to implement Kasturirangan panel proposals as the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF began preparations for the Statewide hartal to be observed on Monday over the issue.
The settler zones of Kerala had on Friday fallen into the vortex of intense protests, which are expected to continue for several more days if not weeks, due to the apprehension that implementation of the panel’s proposals might lead to large-scale eviction of farmers from the high ranges and stoppage of cultivation and developmental activities.
The situation in the settler regions of the State is expected to worsen further as the High Range Protection Committee, a forum of settler farmers, has announced its decision to lay siege to hydel power stations, block traffic and tourist inflow and forcibly close schools and Government offices and not to pay taxes from Monday.
Organisations supporting the cash crop farmers say that settlers in 123 villages among the Kerala part of the Western Ghats could be displaced as these villages have been identified as ecologically sensitive areas where no medium or large-scale development activities can take place, as per the report of the Kasturirangan committee.
Trouble-makers cashing in on the situation had on Friday set on fire the Forest Range Office in Thamarassery. Many Forest records, documents, deer horns and sandalwood had been destroyed in the arson. Forest officials said the files burnt included those relating to illegal quarrying and land-grabbing. A bar hotel was set on fire in Thamarassery early Saturday morning.
Shops, commercial establishments and schools remained closed and vehicles kept off the roads in Idukki and Wayanad districts on Saturday during the 12-hour shutdown. In Kattappana, Idukki, protestors pelted stones at a post office. A Forest Sub-Station came under stone-pelting at Varayal and another at Kattikkulam was set on fire in Wayanad district.
Though the Catholic Church is solidly behind the protests against Central move, Mar Remegiose Inchananiyil, Bishop of Thamarassery, called for an end to agitations over the issue as, he said, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had assured him that she would intervene in the issue and that not even a single farmer would be displaced.
Amidst speculations that there could be a realignment of political parties in the State - which might not be in the interest of the before ruling Congress - before he lok Sabha polls, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala tried to reassure the settler farmers that the Kasturirangan panel proposals would not cause any eviction.
During his Mass Contact programme at Palakkad on Saturday, Chandy said that the Kasturirangan panel proposals would not be implemented hastily while Chennithala said in Delhi that certain forces were trying to propagate false information over the report for the protection of the Western Ghats.
What is troubling the Congress, which is leading a Government that survives on a wafer-thin majority, is the fact that the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest constituent of the ruling UDF and a settler-based party, is openly cooperating with the Opposition lDF in the agitations over the Kasturirangan panel report, which is seen as a sign of its readiness to switch sides.