Casting terror in Naxal hotbed

In the village of Naravi in Mangalore district, also bordering the national park, the Naxal call for boycott of the elections appeared on the walls of the gram panchayat office. In Sringeri, too, it appeared on government buildings.

Both places have been witness to Naxal violence in recent times. As many as 10 alleged Naxals have been killed in police encounters while two civilians have been killed in the last five years.

The Maoist movement in the region grew from the resistance to evacuation of nearly 15,000 forest people living in 36 revenue villages in the protected national park. The movement still has a democratic face in the form of the Kudremukh National Park Virudhi Horata, a conglomerate of different groups cutting across social strata who are fighting for the rights of the Kudremukh forest people.

“An atmosphere of fear exists in these parts. If a tribal comes to town for the weekly market, he cannot be sure he will return home. There is the constant threat of police raids,” says Kalkuli Vittal Hegde, president of the Kudremukh National Park Virudhi Horata and a resident of Sringeri town.

His movement has resulted in several government packages—amounting to nearly Rs 100 crore—for the forest community. But these packages haven’t translated into changes on the ground, says Vittal Hegde.

According to gram panchayat officials at Naravi village in Belthangady taluk of the Dakshin Kannada district, where posters calling for an election boycott appeared this week, the forest people are well-informed about government schemes like the NREGA or the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. The region is among the few in Karnataka where pre-poll carrots—money, booze and other entrapments—hold little weight.

While police officials say the Naxals visit homes in the villages and ask people to fight for their rights, the forest people deny it. “They come late at night when there are no policemen around. But they only ask for food or a place to rest. They don’t do any sermonising,” says 75-year-old Ramappa Poojary from Idu village at whose home two women, Hajima and Parvati, were gunned down by police and a third Yashodha was arrested in 2003. The Poojarys say they are not going to heed the Naxal call to boycott the elections.

“People are caught between the police and the Naxals,” said a Naravi panchayat official. The Kudremukh National Park Virudhi Horata and allied groups decided on May 14 to ask the tribal people to exercise their franchise in favour of the Congress candidate and former Karnataka law minister D.B. Chandregowda.

The BJP candidate, D.N. Jeevaraj, has reacted by calling the Congress Naxal sympathisers.

“Four innocent adivasis were killed by the police of the JDS-BJP government last July at Menasinahadya. The Congress is willing to listen us,” says Vittal Hegde.