Jumbo menace: Plan afoot to relocate 40 tribal families

Coimbatore: Forest and revenue departments are planning to permanently relocate 40 families from the Navamalai tribal settlement to Aliyar to save them from wild elephants.
The residents of the colony work as labourers in agricultural fields located on the forest fringes. A wild elephant had trampled two of them a few months ago. Another wild elephant destroyed a hut owned by 54-year-old K Iyappan on Wednesday night. It had destroyed another hut two days ago.
Elephants are targeting the houses in search of rice stored there, said Balamurugan, a resident. “A tusker has been raiding the area for the last few days in search of rice,” he told TOI.
Officials of the departments held talks with the residents and agreed to provide them land near Aliyar.
But not all of them are ready to move. “Elderly people in the settlement said that our forefathers had settled down in Navamalai four generations ago and that we should not move from the place,” said Balamurugan.
Forest department officials said that the residents had encroached on forest land. “They are working as labourers in nearby agricultural fields. But the owners of the fields have not provided them safe places to stay. After wild animals started to raid the settlement, we deployed as many as 10 anti-poaching watchers and forest department field staff during night hours. We also requested the residents to stay in a nearby hall built by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board to escape from elephants,” said Pollachi forest division officer AS Marimuthu.
The revenue department is looking for lands for the tribes outside the reserve forest. “If they agree to move out of the reserve forest, we will work with the revenue department to shift them to the plains,” Marimuthu.added.
Pollachi revenue divisional officer Ravikumar has instructed the tahsildar to find a suitable land for the tribals.