KOCHI: In a surprising trend, two tribal hamlets on Tuesday consisting of over 200 Adivasi families submitted before the government to take away their native forest land in exchange for areas adjoining villages. The ‘Moopans’ (head of tribal hamlets) of Vaariyam and Uriyampetti hamlets of the Kuttampuzha panchayat, made the submission before District Collector P I Sheik Pareeth and MLA T U Kuruvila.The authorities have agreed to construct a model township, a one-of-its-kind in the state in exchange of the land.“Today, we depend on towns and villages for food, health and schooling. Since the new location is more accessible to these it will help us in a big way,” said the moopan of the Vaariyam Tribal Village Anganan Kunjiyappran.The new location will reduce about four hours of travel for the adivasis to towns.“The reduction in distance will bring down our cost of travel by around Rs 2,500. Since there are no buses or proper roads, we depend on jeep,” he said.In 2009, members one of the seven settlements in Vaariyam hamlets had opted for rehabilitation. But owing to the stiff resistance the project was halted. It was about two weeks back that all the members of two different hamlets in the area asked for the resettlement to the forest department.The new model town plan will be built in an area of 1100 acres. “This is the first planned tribal township in the state. It will have separate areas for residence, temple, agriculture, schooling and hospital,” said Malayatoor DFO, B N Nagaraj. The area given away by the tribals will be maintained by the Forest Department.The Collector promised that temporary rehabilitation will be done before the rains and each family will be provided a sum of Rs 5,000 for it. Further rehabilitation will be done unde the Scheduled Tribes Welfare Department’s housing scheme with an outlay of Rs 2.5 lakh per house.
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