For these tribal voters from Valparai, it was an arduous journey to the polling booth
Residents of tribal settlements in Anamalai Tiger Reserve say they had to walk 7 km through forests to reach the polling station. They complain that their demands for facilities have fallen on deaf ears
The Valparai Assembly segment in the Pollachi Lok Sabha constituency is known for its picturesque vistas in the Anamalai hills of the Western Ghats. However, for the voters in many interior places of Valparai, exercising their franchise involves crossing several hurdles.
R. Kittan, a 55-year-old Pulayar man from the Keel Poonachi tribal settlement in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), and his wife had to walk 7 km to the government high school at Attakatti to cast their vote.
“We had to walk to the Pollachi-Valparai Road due to the lack of a black-top road and transport,” he
P. Mallika, who walked through the forest to get to the polling station to cast her vote.
said. There are 59 families living in the settlement, which is one of the nearly 40 tribal settlements in the ATR.
P. Malliga, 65, from the same area, said that she and many others had been
demanding amenities, including a road and electricity, for many years. When representatives of political parties visited her settlement to seek votes recently, the residents staged an agitation because their needs had not been met, she said.
Tribal activist S. Thanraj of Ekta Parishad, Tamil Nadu, said that the tribal families had been demanding roads for decades. In case of a medical emergency, they would carry the patients on bamboo stretchers and walk through forest areas to seek medical help. “As of now, only one settlement, Nedungundram, has a black-top road and electricity,” he said.
Recently, tribal men carried a pregnant woman for several kilometres through the forest after she went into labour.
V.S. Paramasivam of the Tamil Nadu Tribal Association said, “Ocials could have made more arrangements for transporting tribals to the booths.”