KALPETTA: Comprehensive packages and projects announced by the successive governments, displacements and movements across the state, blood shed, encroachments, eviction -- no change for anything when it comes to providing land for the tribal families in Wayanad.The ninth anniversary of the Muthanga struggle, February 19, Sunday, and the announced move by the Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha to revive the Right Assertion Movement have brought the issue of the right to land for adivasis to the limelight once again. But many look at the move cynically, owing to the organisation’s inability to gather masses to revive such a struggle. There are arguments that the living conditions of the tribal people have improved a lot in the state, except in the Wayanad district where the major issue still persists, since the Muthanga struggle in 2003.According to government records, the total number of landless tribal families in the state is around 52,000, half of which is in the Wayanad district. It also says that out of these, 13,000 families are totally landless and the rest have marginal lands. After the implementation of the special package announced by A K Antony-led UDF government, a total of 8,000 families across the state have been provided land between 1 acre to 5 acre, but when it comes to Wayanad, the Adivasis have been totally neglected.What the Adivasis from Wayanad have achieved so far, after the implementation of the special package in the year 2002, is land for handful of families at Aralam and title deeds for 1,000 odd families living for long at Sugandhagiri, Pookode and Cheengeri as part of the rehabilitation projects. During the tenure of the previous LDF government, 4,335 families who are living inside the forests were also given title deeds.Though nothing has taken place in the ground, announcement of projects continued and the state government allocated another `50 crore as Tribal Supplant Fund through the Tribal Resettlement Mission for finding land in the year 2009 and another `102 crore announcement in state budgets by the LDF government. But no land has been taken over so far and `102 crore mentioned in the budget was scuttled by the present government. “Till 1931, Adivasis were the majority in Wayanad, but largescale migration have changed everything. Today, most of the tribal people are living outside the forest area and both the UDF and LDF governments have failed to address the issue.,” said C Saseendran, CPM District secretary.
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