“If you cut us, do we not bleed?,” thunders an exasperated Vinod Kumar, a resident of Koranur village close to Udhagamandalam in the Nilgiris. Vinod Kumar resides in one in all two villages populated by Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities in Ebbanad panchayat.
The two villages, house to greater than 45 Dalit and Adivasi households, have been overjoyed after bus providers have been just lately prolonged to Koranur from Ebbanad village, populated by the dominant Badaga community.
However, their pleasure of now not having to stroll from Koranur and Bikkapathy Mund, measuring 2 km and four km respectively to Ebbanad, quickly turned to anger and frustration after a whole lot of individuals from Ebbanad staged a protest for over 5 hours late Wednesday night, stopping the bus from reaching Koranur.
The extension of the bus service by 2 km to Koranur was not solely going to profit the residents of the village, but in addition the Toda hamlet of Bikkapathy Mund, whose residents’ every day commute by stroll would have been halved if the buses stopped at Koranur.
The bus to Koranur that was stopped by protesters from Ebbanadu on Wednesday night.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Okay. Thoodas Kuttan, 49, the village headman of Bikkapathy Mund, mentioned the final bus to Ebbanad would attain the village at round 7 p.m. Local residents would have to stroll four km by way of thick forests populated by gaur, leopards, tigers and elephants to attain their village. “All we petitioned for was for the bus to drop us at Koranur, and then return to Ebbanad,” mentioned Mr. Kuttan.
Incidentally, Ebbanad receives a serious portion of its water from a stream in Bikkapathy Mund. “Yet, they have no gratitude to the residents of the village,” charged Mr. Kuttan.
Dinesh Kuttan, who has been pressured to transfer out of the Toda hamlet to Koranur to guarantee his youngsters get to faculty on a regular basis, mentioned that the motivation to cease the buses to the village are casteist in nature. “They openly state they will not allow the bus to carry a signboard of a village populated by ‘colony people’ (a term used by dominant caste members to denote Dalits and persons of Sri Lankan origin resettled in the Nilgiris),” mentioned Mr. Dinesh Kuttan.
Women are most affected by the lack of transportation to close by Koranur, mentioned Bhuvana Rani, who was one in all the individuals on board the bus that was stopped by Ebbanad residents. She mentioned as an alternative of arresting the protesters, the police spent the greatest a part of 5 hours asking the passengers to alight and stroll to their villages. “We felt the police was taking their side,” mentioned Ms. Rani.
The residents of Bikkapathy Mund and in explicit, Koranur, are frightened of backlash from Ebbanad residents, who vastly outnumber them. “While we are around 100-150 people, more than 1,500 Badagas live in Ebbanad, and we feel this is also the reason why the government, especially in an election year, is reluctant to act against them,” alleged P. Natrajan, a every day wage employee from Koranur.
The Nilgiris District Collector, M. Aruna, insisted the district administration is taking the scenario extraordinarily severely. She mentioned the bus to Koranur will certainly ply on Thursday, although the residents of Ebbanad met the Nilgiris Superintendent of Police, and once more expressed their unwillingness to budge.
Ms. Aruna mentioned sufficient police presence could be posted alongside the route to guarantee the bus reaches Koranur, and steps could be taken to guarantee the scenario stays underneath management and doesn’t unfold to different villages.
T. Subramani, who together with a gaggle of 15 males in Ebbanad was discussing the challenge on Thursday, mentioned the authorities can ply separate buses to Koranur, however the native residents wouldn’t allow the Ebbanad bus to journey previous the village.
“The bus travels with the name of the Ebbanad village, which is our pride and identity,” he advised The Hindu. He mentioned the buses have been plying to Ebbanad for 20 years and that the residents won’t allow “their village bus” to be prolonged to Koranur. “Nobody is stopping Koranur residents from getting on the Ebbanad bus, but we will not allow the Ebbanad bus to go to Koranur,” he mentioned.
“We have been living here for decades, with no street lights, no roads, no toilets and no basic amenities. It seems like all the facilities extended by the government stop at Ebbanad, just like the bus. The year might be 2024, but we are still living in the 1950s,” mentioned a dejected Okay. Palaniswami, the headman of Koranur.
