In Search of A New Red Corridor

11/26/2016
Ground Zero | In search of a new red corridor - The Hindu
GROUND ZERO NATIONAL
In search of a new red corridor
NOVEMBER 26, 2016 00:15 IST

UPDATED: NOVEMBER 26, 2016 02:00 IST
In the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu enveloped by forests,

Maoists scout for new recruits and a home. Srinivasan Ramani reports
There cant be a more picturesque spot than where the three States of Kerala,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu meet in the Muthanga forest reserve, adjoining the
Bandipur and Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary, all part of the Nilgiris bioreserve. Here,
spotted deer, herds of elephants and bisons have made their home. As has the tiger,
an elusive animal to spot; camera traps have identified 86 of them in the reserve and
the adjoining forests. As elusive but seemingly omnipresent are a group of foot
soldiers of the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army of the Communist Party of India
(Maoist), whose movements amidst the thick vegetation are confirmed by the tribals,
the original human inhabitants of the region, and the police who are chasing this new
phantom in the tri-junction.
As many as three dozen or more absconding Maoists are roaming the jungles,
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separated into three dalams named after the three rivers, Kabini, Nadukani and
Bhavani in the area, say police officers of Gudalur, Tamil Nadu and Wayanad, Kerala.
They have reportedly been entering the tribal villages that abut the dense forests
regularly. These villages are inhabited by the Kattunayakan community that depends
primarily on selling forest produce for a living; the Paniya and Adhiya communities
who have traditionally been agricultural workers and with a history of labour
exploitation; and the relatively better-off Kurichiya and Kuruma agrarian tribal
communities.
Encounters and encounters

After months of a cat-and-mouse game in the tri-junction, the Kerala Polices antiNaxalite Thunderbolts force reported a major exchange of fire with Maoists in the
Kuralai region of the Nilambur forests in Malappuram district on Thursday. Two
Maoist cadre Kuppu Devaraj from Karnataka and Ajitha alias Kaveri were said to
be killed in what was the first encounter of its kind in Kerala.
Before the encounter, sightings of Maoists were scattered across the region: the
latest were in Agali in the forests of northern Palakkad district, in the Paattakarimbu
tribal colony in Malappuram district, in Thirunelly in northern Wayanad among
others. Nilambur-like encounters are rare. But for the major incident, which
occurred nearly a week after this reporters visit to Wayanad and Malappuram, that
itself followed a firing incident close to the nearby Mundakadavu colony in October,
the last serious exchange of fire was in Kunhome forest nearly two years ago.
The arrest of Maoist leader Roopesh and his wife Shyna in Coimbatore in May 2015
was a setback to the rebels in the region. Roopesh is believed to have been associated
with the Kabini dalam. Since his arrest, say police officers, the Maoist journal Kaatu
Thee (Forest Fire) has not been published or circulated in the region. His position is
believed to have been taken by another native of Malappuram who goes by the alias
Soman and is said to belong to the Nadukani dalam (which publishes the periodical,
Chenkaadu (Red Forest).
The Kattunayakan dwellers of Paattakarimbu village confirmed the visits by Soman
to their village, the most recent one sometime in October 2016. The womenfolk tell
us that the colony dwellers are relatively educated (with many of them finishing high
school) but are unskilled and dependent on the forest. There is a lack of an organised
market for their produce and the dwellers are keen on better implementation of
promised welfare schemes (the Integrated Tribal Development Projects, various State
welfare schemes).
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KochuRavi,whowasroughedupbytheMaoistsforallegedlytalkingtothepoliceabouttheirvisits.Photo:DineshKrishnan
Caught in the crossfire

Narayanan (name changed) and another villager, Kochu Ravi, returned from the
forest at our behest and told us that they are aware of various government schemes
but they are poorly implemented in the village. This is the reason why Maoists visit
them, says Narayanan. They want to get recruits from among us while the police
want us to inform them about their visits. The police do not allow us to go alone to
the forest for collecting the produce; we have to go as a group. The Maoists
sometimes make us sit and listen to their views. This hampers our work. Then there
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are the wild elephants that can attack us if we are not careful. This Maoist-police
business is making life very difficult for us, he says.
In fact, Ravi, an Ezhava who married into a tribal family and settled down in
Paattakarimbu, has already been named in Chenkaadu as a suspected police informer
and was roughed up by the Maoists for allegedly talking to the police about their
visits.
The Maoists are very persuasive. Soman is the one who talks to us in Malayalam. He
explained our problems and told us not to vote in elections. The Maoists, when they
visit our colony at odd hours, treat us respectfully. Women are always talked to only
in the presence of women cadre. And they try to explain issues patiently, concedes
Narayanan. But I want to ask the Maoists, how different are you from any other
political party? You seek power too. There is no difference except that you carry guns.
We want to be left alone. We know how to get things done even if they are difficult.
The theme of harassment being caught in a battle between the absconding
Maoists and the wary security forces (the police and the Thunderbolts) is a repeated
complaint by Kurichiya villagers in the Kunhome forest near Mananthavady in
Wayanad.
The Kurichiya hamlet called Chappa has a settlement of about four families living off
farms that grow bananas, pepper, paddy among a variety of crops and are on the edge
of the forest. In December 2014, security forces engaged in combing operations in the
village found the guerrillas in a natural meadow in the forest. After firing some shots,
the Maoists fled deeper into the jungle, and that was the last they were seen, says
Gopi, a Chappa resident.
Since the incident though, a slew of welfare measures were implemented a better
road from the towns leading up to the village, grant of milch cows to the families and
ease of access (albeit done haphazardly) for children to nearby schools, among others.
Some of the villagers welcome the welfare measures, but others say that there are
new inconveniences. The Maoists stopped coming after the firing incident. But we
are still not free to go to the forest or to even harvest our own crop in the fields in the
night. My brother is constantly interrogated because he had given the Maoists food
and provisions, says Gopis brother. Tribals like us do not refuse anyone food and
beverage if they come to us. Besides, when they come to us with guns, we do not have
a choice. This does not mean we support Maoists. Yes, the Maoist visits here in the
past may have helped us get the attention of the government and some development
work, but the repeated questioning by security forces and restrictions on our
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movement is harassment, he adds angrily.
Policing the tri-junction

Wayanad Superintendent of Police (SP) K. Karthik says that the inconvenience is a
price to pay for security operations against the Maoists in the area but asserts that the
police treat the tribals with respect and care avoiding raids on houses, for example.
SP Karthik belongs to the 2011 batch of the Indian Police Service and has been posted
in Wayanad for about a year. The SPs in Chamarajanagar district in Karnataka and the
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Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu that abut the tri-junction with Wayanad are also from
the same batch. Having batchmates as SPs has strengthened the already regular
coordination between the police forces of the three States, says Karthik. 2013-14 was
when the activities of the Maoists peaked when resorts were attacked, policemen
and forest officials were threatened. But since 2015, these have slowed down, he
says, adding, the Maoists are more active through their front organisations such as
Porattam and Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Only two days before the interview, an activist of the radical Porattum group was
arrested on the way to a press meet and charged under the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act with being a Maoist sympathiser and advocating violence against
the state.
Tribal activists say that police actions on activist groups have been in a manner that
does not distinguish between anti-state actors and other democratic dissidents.
Sreejith, a local area committee member of the ruling Communist Party of India
(Marxist), says that Wayanad has been in the throes of agrarian distress for years, the
most affected being the Paniya and Adhiya tribals. The Maoist presence in the area is
a subtext to these tribal issues of unemployment, he says, adding that they have not
helped the cause of tribal welfare.
Tapping into the distress

The Maoists have also sought to prevent resort expansion in the forested areas and
have issued threats against quarrying a major issue that is not being taken
seriously by the government, say forest officials. But these actions have resulted in
environmental activists being branded as Maoists. Maoists believe and engage in
mindless violence. But sometimes, they offer a strong opposition and obstacle
against illegal anti-environmental activity in the forests here, says a forest official
who did not want to be named.
Apart from targeting poorer tribals, the Maoists had also identified a Sri Lankan
Tamil resettlement colony near Mananthavady for possible recruits. Babu (name
changed) works in the Kambamala tea estate and is a second-generation refugee
whose parents migrated here after resettlement in the late 1970s. He says that the
Maoists frequented the colony seeking recruits as the condition of the workers here
is very poor.
Residents in the colony complain that they have poor employment opportunities
beyond temporary and limited permanent jobs within the estate. The lack of a
(Scheduled Caste) certificate for many residents in the colony is the major reason,
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they argue. As refugees, their plight is no less than other marginalised caste groups,
they say.
Older residents in the colony are less pessimistic, having come to the area with
nothing during resettlement and painstakingly built their lives in the estate. But
those among the younger generation are desperate for better lives and for permanent
jobs, not tied only to the estate. They are wary of talking about the Maoist visits.
The latest of those visits, says a resident, was during the Assembly elections in May
when the Maoists asked them to boycott polls. Some deny having seen them at all.
But others open up about their views on the Maoists, saying that the latter
understood their plight and communicated well with them with some cadre
(including women) speaking to them in Tamil.
In chaste Tamil, Mala (name changed), a young mother, speaks up. The women cadre
looked nice in that green uniform and the long gun. When I first saw them, I rushed
to meet and greet the women. Some among the Maoists spoke our language and
listened to us as we told them about our distress. No one else does that here, she
says.
It is clear that the Maoists are striving hard to move beyond a protean presence in the
region, even if it is limited only to about three dozen armed guerrillas moving around
the forests in the States tri-junction. With tribal livelihoods lagging behind other
sections of society, the Maoists perceive a potential support base that could inform
them about police operations and also provide foot soldiers for the cause.
Nipping it in the bud

Across the border, SP Murali Rambha, based in Ooty, says the Maoists in the area call
themselves as part of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee and are led by a
Tamil-speaking leader named Kuppuswami. Other senior cadre in the area include
Vikram Gowda and Sundari from Karnataka and Kalidas from Tamil Nadu.
Rambha argues that the Maoist movement in the tri-junction was at a preliminary
stage with their aims limited to attracting new recruits and establishing a presence in
the forests. But he adds that the Tamil Nadu Police is regularly tracking sightings at
villages close to the State border (such as Paattakarimbu) and engaged in frequent
combing and patrol operations along with the anti-Naxalite Special Task Force. We
are empowered to arrest anyone even if they are not formally Maoists but propagate
Maoist views or sympathise with them, he says.
Rambha adds that the police is treating left-wing extremism as being more than
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just a law and order problem. Bringing his experience as a block development officer
in undivided Andhra Pradesh during the peak years of the Peoples War Group to play,
he is coordinating with the revenue department to ensure that the development
schemes in the villages are properly implemented.
Since the merger of two major Naxalite groups in 2004 into the CPI(Maoist), the
radical communist organisation has built a presence in areas where the Indian state
is weakest in its presence the tribal-dominated belts of central India. A decade of
civil war has reduced the Maoists to a military and guerrilla force from its heyday in
Telangana and north Andhra Pradesh as a radical political organisation. A series of
military and leadership setbacks has perhaps forced the Maoists to seek new areas to
build its influence.
The tri-junction area between the three States of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
has been identified by the Maoists as one such area where a coordinated military
effort by the Indian state would be difficult. Wayanad had seen Naxalite action in the
late 1960s, when police camps were attacked, but that movement petered out early.
The only major Naxalite group in Kerala, the Central Reorganisation Committee
(CRC) led by K. Venu, had withered away too. The Naxalites of the present generation,
the Maoists, claim in their pamphlets that they have been present in the area for the
past three and a half years; the movement received a fillip after the merger of the
CRC offshoot Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Naxalbari with the
CPI(Maoist).
Tribals here in the southern States are relatively better off than those in central India,
but with Wayanad barely recovering from a prolonged agrarian crisis, the Maoists are
seeking to use tribal angst to build a political presence. But as the Kurichiya farmer
Gopi says, We have lots of problems and many issues. The Maoists tell us many
things about our problems and issues with the government, but in the end only the
government can help us.
srinivasan.vr@thehindu.co.in
With E.M. Manoj and Dinesh Krishnan
Printable version | Nov 26, 2016 7:05:52 AM |
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/In-search-of-a-new-redcorridor/article16702105.ece
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11/26/2016

Ground Zero | In search of a new red corridor - The Hindu

GROUND ZERO NATIONAL