The Hindu Business Line : A lonely battle to save Gudalur forests

On the way to Gudalur division in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve from Mudumalai, one can see on either side of the road some of the tallest columns of bamboo stretching to a height of 80 ft and above.

They shoot out in all directions with a few looping over the road to beat the darkness of the forest floors. Typical elephant country. At some places the bamboo clumps are fenced by solar electric fencing to keep them off. It would be inexact to blame the animals, as the forest was theirs. Humans have taken over and styled the space Gudalur town. The about 20-km drive in our Tata Indica ends up at the town which has cement houses, roads, traffic signals, buses, cars, bars, markets, schools, telephone booths, plastic waste, hotels and resorts.

Tamil-speaking Keralites lord the area followed by Tamil-speaking Kannadigas with the Tamils from Tamil Nadu reduced to the role of tennis queen, Sania Mirza.

Human habitations continue to crawl up the sides of the surrounding hills and in the morning one noted school children going to school kicking empty plastic bottles on the road. Every proud nuance of modern civilisation is there. Not a trace of a fallen leaf or a dried up flower. Some 50 or more years ago Gudalur nursed a forest of around 80,000 acres. Today, only about 6,000 acres of forest remain.

Located at 900-1,000 metres above sea level at a point where the borders of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala meet, it has a rainfall of 2,500 mm spread over six months; sometimes a day's shower can be up to 110 mm. The rivers Moyar, Kabini and Cauvery start here. Temperatures vary between 13 degrees and 30 degrees (Centigrade). Frost is absent, mist is present. When we were there it was warm. The soil — a mix of sand, silt and clay — is well drained. "An hour after heavy rains, the place will look dry as if there were no rains. It is one of the richest forest areas," said young Tippanna S. Dange, District Forest Officer, Gudalur division.

Royal connection

The Gudalur tale can be nailed to a time when three royal families — Nilambur, Nelliyalam and Kadambur — owned most of Gudalur, with the zamindars of Nilambur, being centre stage. The Nilambur zamindars leased out about 50 per cent of 80,088 acres owned by them to British plantation companies and kept the rest (the forests). That created the distinction between janmam land owned by zamindars and non-janmam land. With large tracts being swampy, families from Kerala and Karnataka migrated en masse in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

In 1966, under an agreement between India and Sri Lanka, Tamils from Sri Lanka were located in the forests of Gudalur and the TN Tea Plantation Corporation was set up to aid them, adding to the thinning of the forests.

In 1969, Tamil Nadu passed the Gudalur Janmam Estates Abolition & Conversion into Ryotwari Act with 60 sections to bring some sense into the hurtingly dishonest usurp of forestland. In the same year, the Kerala Government, by an Ordinance, declared Nilambur a forest forcing people into the unmanned forests of Gudalur. "At that time it was a malaria infested area and malaria allowance was granted by the government to get people in," said Mr Dange.

Act challenged

In 1972, the tea companies challenged the 1969 Act, failed and on November 27, 1974, the Act came into being. By the Act, pattas were given on a tenancy basis to people with records of three continuous period of cultivation between June 1, 1966 and June 1, 1969. Some areas such as forests, rivers and swamps were strictly prohibited for trading by Section 11 while Section 17 dealt with leased areas to companies; Section 53 said all forest areas were to remain as forests. The Janmam Act (as it is popularly called), could not be challenged in district courts and in 1974, it was brought under the 9th Schedule of the Constitution, barring legal challenge. But tea companies, who had on the sly eaten into forestland, could not resist a fight in the courts as bottom and top lines of balance sheets were being endangered. Some nine tea estates moved the Supreme Court in 1977 challenging the Constitutional validity of placing the Janmam Act under the 9th Schedule of the Constitution. The SC gave a stay with the leased areas placed under an "as is where is" stipulation (The case continues with a few tea companies pulling out).

In 1977, the Gudalur Forest Division was set up to man the forests under janmam land. Possibly, the Tamil Nadu Government could have saved large parts of Gudalur under the TN Prevention of Private Forest Act, 1949 and the TN Hill Area Preservation of Trees Act, 1955, applicable to patta land. The 1949 Act said that not more than seven old trees could be cut without government permission while the 1955 Act banned all tree felling. Till 1988 "it was a forest for all except animals" with residency established on the evidence of a bus ticket or a hotel bill.

PIL filed

The Gudalur forest slaughter hurt one gentleman going by now the legendary name of Godhavarman Thirumalpad of the Nilambur family. In 1995, he filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), writ petition 202/95, in the Supreme Court bringing to notice the poleaxing of Gudalur forests despite a cluster of forest conservation laws. On December 12, 1996, the Supreme Court banned all felling of trees and expanded the dictionary definition of "forests" to include all lands set down in the past as forests in government records. That famous Green Order over-ruled all orders.

"From 1996 to 2006, this order was not made public to the citizens of Gudalur. Surprisingly, none was aware of its existence," affirmed Mr Dange, who is fighting hard to cling on to the remaining 6,000 acres of Gudalur forests. In 2003, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court, after a visit to the area, made 11 suggestions for forest reclamation. They are on government files. While the forests are being usurped by an influential middle and trading class, the original tribals do not have even a cent (the common land measure in Tamil Nadu) of land for themselves. "Paniyars (scheduled tribes) are the most affected. They do not have anything of their own. Irulas, Kattu Nayakkars, Kurumbas and Kotas are others who lead a nomadic life, taking up jobs on the run," said Mr Dange.

With Gudalur forests becoming Gudalur town, elephants find it hard to romp the forests spread across the three adjoining States with most of the 11 corridors shut. In some parts gold mining is profitable with people digging deep holes into the forest floor to extract gold. Sometimes elephants trip on these craters and then it is merry time for the poachers. "I am now trying to implement the forest Acts on the books and keep in tact the little forest wealth left. That's because I am a forest officer," said Mr Dange firmly. Like all governments, Tamil Nadu is pushing for development. Possibly, it is the first instance in the country of a wildlife hot spot going under with only Mr Tippanna S. Dange holding on.

(To be continued)

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A lonely battle to save Gudalur forests

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