On Saturday, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition launched a political campaign tapping into the woes of a sizeable settler-farmer community reeling from low crop price-induced agrarian distress and pervasive social insecurity caused by escalating wildlife raids on agricultural lands, attacks on humans, and trespasses on population centres. 

Inaugurating the Malayora Jatha in Kannur, All India Congress in Committee (AICC) member K.C. Venugopal, MP, sought to sail close to the winds, shaping the politics of the predominantly Church-backed rural community by heaping blame on the Central and State governments for “leaving the estimated 30-lakh strong population abutting forests to their fate”. 

Mr. Venugopal’s tirade against the Centre and State’s “apathy” unfolded against the backdrop of the emotive public agitation in Wayanad for the elimination of the tiger that ambushed and killed a 40-year-old woman plantation worker on Saturday. 

He said protecting human life and property took precedence over wildlife conservation. “The Centre and State governments should not lose sight of the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution,” he added. 

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, who is heading the campaign, said families abutting protected forests in the State lived in fear and misery. “Wives do not know whether marauding wild animals will ambush their husbands and children en route to work or school. Farmers have almost given up on tuber cultivation, given the profusion of invasive feral wild boars. They are loath to replant rubber trees in small holdings, fearing wildlife raids. Marauding monkeys and elephants destroy coconut and banana yields. The third and fourth-generation farmers are at their tether’s end, and neither the Centre nor the State governments offer any relief.”

Buffer zone

Mr. Satheesan said Kerala’s forest cover, an estimated 29.1% of its total geographical area, was among the highest in the country. “Given the population density, where will our people go? He added that the State government has added to their woes by creating more reserve forests and insisting on buffer zones preventing human activity within a one-kilometre radius of protected forests”. 

Mr. Satheesan said stiff resistance from the Opposition had forced the State government to backtrack from introducing the contentious Kerala Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in the Assembly’s Budget session. UDF convener M.M. Hassan said the Bill lacked a human dimension and vested forest enforcers with untrammelled power to prosecute settler farmers found fishing, collecting forage, or picking kindling near forests. 

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Sudhakaran, Indian Union Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty, CMP leader C.P. John, and Kerala Congress (Jacob) leader Mons Joseph, MLA, were among those who spoke.