A view of labour colony (Vinoba Nagar) at Kudremukh in Chikkamagaluru district.
| Photo Credit: G.T. Satish
Four-year-old Vedanth was the only child in the Anganwadi centre at Edagunda village of Koppa taluk in Chikkamagaluru district when The Hindu visited the remote place recently. Girija, an Anganwadi worker, was teaching, while her assistant, Sumithra, was cooking lunch for the child.
“Three children attend the school regularly, but today only one child is here,” said Ms. Girija. The centre is meant for children from Bittumakki, Horale, Yadagunda, and Kadegundi villages. It functions from the building which was part of the government primary school, which no longer exists. Now, as children turn six, they are sent to residential school at Meguru.
Transport issues
Children are separated from their parents at a young age, as there are no regular day schools in the locality. The schools that existed once were closed due to the decrease in admissions. The parents prefer residential schools, as transport is a big problem. There is no bus service in the area. Local people argue that the harsh realities of the locality had a direct link to the spread of Naxal movement in the district.
Yadagunda is the place from where two women, Horale Jaya and Komala, joined the Naxal movement two decades ago and returned home under the State government’s rehabilitation policy. Mundagaru Latha, who is still active in the movement, is native of Mundagaru, a village closeby. She and other suspected Maoists recently visited a family at Kadegundi.
The roads that connect Edagunda to Kadegundi are not in motorable condition. As the movement of Naxals in the area was reported, senior police officials rushed to the place.
“The officers reached the place easily as it was not raining. During the rainy season, no vehicle navigate these narrow, slushy lanes,” said Rame Gowda, a local resident. Whenever a family member falls sick, they have to hire a four-wheel drive vehicle to carry them. Those who cannot afford vehicles have to carry the patients on their shoulders.
National park
The people in the Kudremukh National Park area are facing more restrictions than those outside. The residents of Vinoba Nagar, once a colony of labourers working for the now closed Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL), have no power connection.
A majority of them are migrant workers from Tamil Nadu and distant places in Karnataka. Mani, a native of Tamil Nadu, said he came to Kudremukh for a daily wage of ₹5. As the company was closed in 2005, he lost the job. With no place to return, he stayed in the labour colony with his family.
Except for the street lights, they have no power supply. A few of them have drawn electric lines from the street lights. They do not have records for the place where they have built their huts. Following repeated appeals, the government has identified land near Kalasa for rehabilitation. However, the procedure to allot them sites has not been completed.
Rehabilitation process
“Around four years ago, a community toilet was built for the colony. But we never use it as there is no water supply for the toilet. We have to go to an open place to answer nature’s call. Imagine our plight during heavy rains,” said Chandramma, a native of Ballari district.
Of the over 1,350 families living in the park limits, around 600 have submitted applications seeking rehabilitation. A few of them have been relocated. However, the rest have refused to move. The Naxals have always opposed the eviction of people from the park. A few youths from the region became left-wing extremists by joining the protests against the restrictions on the local people in the name of national park.
Published – November 21, 2024 09:05 pm IST