Shadow of solar project on grazing land keeps village in Tirunelveli on its toes

District Collector’s report suggests that the grazing land for which the Dalits have community rights, and where Tamil Nadu government plans to set up its plant, is not a panchami land  Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu: Located 22 km north of Tirunelveli, the vast green expanse of Alavanthankulam in Pallikottai panchayat is a haven for farm animals. “Such extensive grazing land with community rights cannot be found anywhere else in Tamil Nadu,” claims M Viyagappan (37), the village community head of Devendrakula Vellalars, a Scheduled Caste.“This land was the reason for low migration for over three generations. We Dalits have community rights for it, but about 20,000 families belonging to all castes from over 10 villages depend on it. Nearly one lakh farm animals, predominantly cows and sheep, are grazed here. This is why our protest gets a huge support from neighbouring villages,” he says.The protest that Viyagappan refers to is in response to a proposal to build a solar-based project at Alavanthankulam, a village with a total population of over 3,000 where Devendrakula Vellalars are in majority. The protest began when the state government signed a memorandum of understanding with Tata Power in 2022 to establish a greenfield solar cell and module manufacturing plant in Tirunelveli district. The Tata Group will invest Rs 3,000 crore on the 4GW solar cell and 4GW solar module plant over a period of 16 months, according to an official press statement released by Tata Power in July 2022. Since the acquisition is not over, there is uncertainty about when the plant work will begin. The State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamilnadu Ltd (SIPCOT) began land acquisition in December 2021, but so far part of the land owned by private individuals only has been acquired. The notification issued by the district Collector for land acquisition states the survey numbers of the grazing land. The only thing not explicitly mentioned was that the land will be given to Tata Power. As per the copies of the government documents accessed by 101Reporters, 342.18 acres of grazing land will be part of the total 1,664.73 acres required for the project. With grazing land inclusion becoming an issue, Madurai-based civil rights activist C Anand Raj petitioned Manur tehsildar on September 7 last year, but without a positive response. Subsequently, on September 29, he approached the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, which dismissed the public interest litigation in October and ordered the Tirunelveli Collector to dispose of the representation that Raj had made to the district authorities.In his response dated January 3 this year, Collector KP Karthikeyan stated that the land in question was not a panchami land as per the report of the assistant director (land survey). The response stated that only 342.18 acres out of the total 406.97 acres would be acquired and the remaining 64.79 acres would be enough for grazing.The reply stated it was a barren land with no agricultural activity happening for over 30 years. This inadvertently endorsed the villagers’ claim of grazing land.Panchami is basically a categorisation of land ownership and not land usage. In terms of land usage, the government records categorise it as a punjai land (where rainfed agriculture is possible). This again implies that the villagers did not use it for cultivation because they needed it for grazing.(Above) The residents of Alavanthankulam claim that they produce at least 5000 litres of milk per day (below) A system for watering cattle (Photo sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Panchami land or not?It was in the 1890s that the erstwhile British rulers allotted panchami lands to the Dalits of Tamil Nadu under the Depressed Classes Land Act. Such lands were barred from re-classification, and it was illegal for non-Dalits to buy them. The Act mandated that the transaction of these lands could take place only between Dalits, and that too only for agricultural purposes.Though various social organisations claim that over 12 lakh acres of waste and unused lands had been distributed as panchami lands with individual and community rights, the land records had been lost over the decades, and the lands with individual ownership ultimately reached the hands of non-Dalits from dominant castes.What makes the land of Alavanthankulam a rare exception is the panchami land here has not been sold or diverted, because the land has community ownership.Devendrakula Vellalars of Alavanthankulam claim that they have grazing rights over 406.97 acres under Pirancheri revenue village for over a century. The panchami land was allotted to them in 1897. The land document with the state revenue department also states that the land is owned by 64 ar arijana uzhavar samudhayam, which means ‘64 Ar Harijan farming community’.“The British-era land document from 1903 available with the villagers clearly states that the land was allotted to the Dalits in 1897. The district administration can do some research on whether this is a panchami land or not, but they cannot outrightly deny it is not so,” says M Vargheesh Antony (43), Alavanthankulam resident and an organiser of the Republic Day protest. Raj tells 101Reporters that circumstantial evidence shows the land is most probably a panchami land. “There is a document to show... Also, the Britishers allotted panchami lands to the Dalits only in the 1890s.”“Even after Independence, the documents of the Tamil Nadu government states that the 64 ar arijana uzhavar samudhayam has a collective ownership over the land. If it is not a panchami land, how did the word arijana enter into the document,” asks Raj, who plans to appeal the High Court judgment in the Supreme Court.This document written in 1903 shows that the land under dispute was given to the Dalits in 1897 (Photo sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Livelihood at stakeC Anthonyammal (67), a widow from Alavanthankulam, has five goats and two cows. "I have six children and all of them live separately. I could sustain myself due to the grazing land. If it is lost, my regular income will be gone. All I will be left with will be Rs 1,000 the government provides [under Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai]. How will that be enough? I am thinking of moving to an old-age home if things become tough," she says.  Kulanthai Teresa Rani (52), another widow, cannot work in farms or under wage guarantee scheme due to health complications. "I live alone, but have 10 goats. This income helps me to meet medical expenses... If the government acquires our land, we may be forced to rear livestock on private lands, which could lead to unnecessary issues with land owners."   D Alangaram (55), a shepherd from Alavanthankulam, claims that he looks after over 2,000 goats of Alavanthankulam and Nellai Thiruthu, including 10 of his own. "The owners make an annual payment of Rs 120 per goat."As per his estimate, the total sheep population in these villages would cross 5,000. "The remaining 64 acres will not be enough to feed our livestock," he states. Viyagappan says almost every household at Alavanthankulam owns five to 10 goats. "We have even employed a person to rear the 2,000-plus sheep in the village. Each owner will pay him Rs 110 per sheep per annum,” he says, pointing to the agrarian nature of his community.“Basically what the government says is that they will provide employment to 2,000 people by destroying the livelihood of 20,000. Since the grazing land is not owned by individuals, the government does not have to give monetary compensation for acquisition,” says Antony. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the people the plant employs will be from Alavanthankulam.Viyagappan owns 15 cows and 20 sheep, and claims that he could not have raised his three children without the land. “We are not against the plant. What we demand is not to set it up in our grazing land,” he adds.This Republic Day, over 3,000 families and commercial establishments at Alavanthankulam and its neighbourhood staged a black flag protest against land acquisition. The same day, Alavanthankulam announced a boycott of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. According to sources, following the protest, Manur Police have registered a case against about 50 villagers, including Viyagappan, for unlawful assembly and creating public nuisance.Republic day protest at Alavanthankulam that declared the poll boycott (Photo sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Before that, on August 15 and October 2 last year, the Pallikottai village panchayat’s gram sabha passed two resolutions against grazing land acquisition. However, the government is in no mood to relent.Efforts to reach Revathi Chandrasekaran, Special District Revenue Officer (Land Acquisition), Tirunelveli, did not solicit any response. Special Tehsildar (Land Acquisition) S Venkataraman, the second highest officer dealing with land acquisition issues in the district, tells 101Reporters that he has no idea about the Alavanthankulam issue.Antony says he is yet to get a reply to an email he sent a few months ago to a Tata Power representative seeking stopping of acquisition. 101Reporters also sought to know if a Tata Power plant was the subject of a poll boycott at Alavanthankulam and how the company plans to address the concerns of the locals.More than 20,000 goats, sheep, and cows in Alavanthankulam (Photo sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Renewability vs sustainabilityProfessor Beena PL of the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, whose areas of specialisation include Developmental Implications, tells 101Reporters that there is no systemic framework for mitigation and adaptation for the economic implications as much as the push for renewable energy production.“The same is the case with special economic zones… The number of cattle in a region will have something to do with the quality of soil, sustaining agriculture etc. Grazing land would play a role in maintaining the sustainability of agriculture there,” she says.While hailing Tamil Nadu as one of the leading states in adopting and producing renewable energy, Beena insists on doing a cost-benefit analysis (comparison of existing employment and income generation with the potential employment and income generation through proposed projects).Undoubtedly, income earned through milk and profit from cattle sale will go down drastically if farmers lose their grazing land. Villages around Pallikottai and Pirancheri have registered cattle rearers associations, in which hundreds of families are members. These families may have to search for agricultural labour, or migrate for livelihood.On average, a family earns Rs 7,000 to 8,000 per month through livestock. Every six months or a year, they sell cows and goats. Sales amount can run into a few lakh for those with a considerable flock of sheep.  Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Cows drinking water from the watering system (Photo sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)

Anatomy of caste discrimination in a Tamil Nadu village where Dalits defied diktats

When an Arunthathiyar from Rajavur complained about a casteist attack, it paved way for a procession defying the diktat against wearing footwear in Kambala Naicker street and entering the temple. Strangely, just three village Dalits participated, giving Naickers an opportunity to term the march a non-issue created by outsidersTiruppur, Tamil Nadu: At the dead end of a street that sees no vehicle movement stands the modest house of A Muruganantham (51), an Arunthathiyar from Rajavur village in Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu. This New Year’s dawn, Muruganantham was treated to an awful sight — a cat’s carcass thrown in front of his house with its neck slit. He figured out instantly that it was the fallout of a complaint lodged by him, besides his participation in an anti-caste temple procession.“It was done to threaten my life and dissuade the Dalits in the name of black magic. Unfortunately, even a few members of my caste connive with the perpetrators,” he sighs. His house is now under round-the-clock protection, but it could be withdrawn at the police’s discretion any time.(Above)Muruganantham is worried about his life after he took up the issue with the police (below)Muruganantham's house has been given police protection with CCTV surveilance after a dead cat was found here (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters) Rajavur, officially named Kondavanaickenpatti, falls under Maivadi panchayat. OBC community Kambala Naicker is the majority caste here, while Scheduled Caste Arunthathiyar is the minority. In all, Rajavur has a total population of 1,500. Kongu Vellala Gounders, a politically and economically powerful OBC community in the state’s western districts, also make up a considerable population.Naickers of Rajavur and the neighbouring Periyakottai are mainly agrarian. Across the state, the community is known for black magic practice. Besides their economic and social supremacy, the fear of alleged practices such as placing voodoo dolls under the surface of Naicker streets to harm those who violate casteist diktats prevented the Dalits from voicing against the discrimination that Naickers perpetrated.Generally, the Dalits are allowed to live only in designated slums (now colonies) outside villages. People of Pudhu Colony of Rajavur do not have permission to wear footwear in the neighbourhood where Naickers live and on the road that leads to the Raja Kaliyamman Temple. Though the temple is under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department since 2022, it hereditarily belongs to the Naickers of Rajavur and Periyakottai. Not to say, the Dalits cannot enter the temple. (Above) Raja Kaliyamman temple at the outskirts of Rajavur and Periyakottai villages (below) Kannamani, a dalit woman claims that she or none of her ancestors or descendants have entered into the Raja Kaliyamman temple (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters) There is no documented information about the exact year of its construction, but at least three generations of Dalits and non-Dalits claim that they know of this temple since birth, which indirectly indicates that caste discrimination has been going on for over three generations.“When I was a teenager, I unknowingly went inside the Naicker street wearing footwear and was manhandled… I do not get down from my bicycle or two-wheeler if I happen to encounter them on the roads now. I am a mason and have to be at the construction sites by 9 am. If I get down and greet everyone [Naickers], I can reach there only by noon,” says Muruganantham.The flashpointOn the fateful night of December 5 last year, the discrimination that prevails at Rajavur even after 75 years of Independence came out in all its fury. Sakthivel Naicker (60) and his son S Muthu Kumar (30) allegedly attacked Muruganantham and hurled casteist abuses at him over a civil dispute, resulting in his hospitalisation.Following his complaint on December 6, a case was registered against Sakthivel and Muthu at the Madathukulam Police Station under various sections of Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.  Muruganantham alleges that the police initially refused to invoke the SC/ST Act, so he had to approach the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF). During the course of actions, he informed TNUEF about the caste atrocities meted out to about 50 families in his colony.TNUEF Tiruppur district secretary CK Kanagaraj informed other Dalit rights organisations, including Dravida Kazhagam and Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi, and arranged for a procession of Dalits wearing footwear towards the Raja Kaliyamman Temple through the Naicker street. A complaint regarding caste discrimination was registered with the Chief Minister’s Special Cell, from where it was forwarded to the district police.“The authorities initially denied the existence of caste discrimination at Rajavur and asked us to cancel the procession. But we asked them to prove it by allowing Dalits to wear footwear in the Naicker street and enter the temple,” says Kanagaraj.On December 24, three Dalits from Rajavur, including Muruganantham, took part in the procession backed by TNUEF and other rights organisations.On January 9, the accused got bail from the Principal District Court, after obtaining a direction from Madras High Court (HC) on December 29 last year. Now, the status quo of not wearing footwear at the caste Hindu’s streets and not entering into the temples has returned.Terming the act of the Dalits on that day an aberration due to outsiders, a few Naickers told 101Reporters that peace has returned to their village now.Young, old and the social matrix “The discrimination is still there for all Dalits, irrespective of their age… Those who work in the lands of the dominant caste members have no option but to follow their rule,” K Arumugam (39), an Arunthathiyar who participated in the procession, tells 101Reporters.However, a reply from J Sukumaran, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Udumalaipettai, to Kanagaraj on the complaint lodged with the CM's special cell paints a different picture. “The members of the Scheduled Caste did not wear footwear in the aforementioned street and did not enter the temple on their own and the younger generation of the Scheduled Caste do not follow such practices,” the reply states.Calling attention to the December 27 visit of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Director S Ravivarman to the village, Arumugam adds, “When the NCSC director came, a few women accompanied him to the temple. They did so only to show that there was no discrimination here.”  101Reporters later learnt that those women were estranged relatives of Muruganantham. In fact, a few Dalits had acknowledged the existence of caste discrimination to Ravivarman, who instructed the temple trustee to ensure that the Dalits are allowed inside the temple and to report to the authorities in case they were prevented.“Like the Naickers’ hereditary rights over Raja Kaliyamman Temple, we have rights over Madurai Veeran Temple. An argument over dining between my husband and a few Naickers prevented the deity’s procession during the 2019 festival. This festival is the only thing that gives us some rights in the village. Afterwards, they did not allow the festival for three years,” a Dalit woman, whose daughter had registered her grievance with the official, tells 101Reporters on condition of anonymity.She claims her sister was attacked and her husband was forced to prostrate before the aggrieved Naickers after the incident. “We did not have the courage to approach the police then, but my daughter showed it now... She is an engineering graduate who works in Coimbatore... Even some of our own people questioned us for stirring up an old incident in front of a higher official,” she says.Muruganantham, Arumugam and the Dalit woman allege that the Naickers imposed a ban on Dalit farmhands, but a few families went to the house of the accused on January 4 seeking forgiveness and work. 101Reporters could not independently verify their claim since the Dalit families were averse to talking.However, two Naickers wishing anonymity claim that they continue to engage Dalits from Rajavur in their farms. They refused to speak about the footwear and temple entry ban, terming them “non-issues created by outsiders”.Arumugam is one of the Dalits who visited the Kambala Naicker street with a footwear and later entered into the temple (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Tradition, not discrimination?“We have not banned the Dalits from wearing footwear or temple entry,” claims a sexagenarian from Rajavur. “It is God’s will. If anybody violates it, something will happen to him/her in 90 days. I do not want to explicitly mention, you understand it by yourself.”  Her husband says the Dalits in their village are amicable towards other communities and “follows the customs”. “Only the outsiders caused trouble,” he adds. The couple neither acknowledged nor denied the existence of caste discrimination, but chose to call it a “custom”.However, M Mohan Kumar (54), a Kambala Naicker from Periyakottai, puts it differently. “Denial of entry of Dalits is not an issue specific to this temple. It was there everywhere until a few decades ago. But the Dalits from these two villages did not enter voluntarily. We too did not force them, as per the tradition. However, if they want to enter, we will not prevent them,” he says, while denying allegations of black magic by his community.  Standing next to him on the roadside was K Kannamanai, an Arunthathiyar in her 70s. “Even if they allow, our people should not enter as it will invite the deity’s wrath,” she says, in sharp contrast to the aspirations of the younger Dalits.Mohan Kumar, a Kambala Naicker caste member states that his community will not object the entry of Dalits into the temple hereafter (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)The future of caste  DSP Sukumaran is the investigating officer in the case filed by Muruganantham, but he speaks the language of the dominant OBC. “Discrimination existed in the village some decades ago, not at present,” he tells 101Reporters, while assuring that legal action will be taken against those who bar Dalits from wearing footwear or entering the temple.“We opposed the bail, but the accused got an HC direction. Also, the estranged relatives of Muruganantham told the court that this is not a caste issue but a mere civil issue,” he asserts.“Had the accused been remanded in judicial custody at least for a week, it would have been a morale booster for the Dalits. But when the accused returns to the village instead of going to jail, it sends a bad signal that casteism is unassailable,” Kanagaraj says.“The ban may not go. Nevertheless, we have shown the Dalits of Rajavur that nobody can suppress them in the name of caste and there are legal avenues to face such discrimination. The caste Hindu’s will not have the audacity to attack or abuse Dalits in the future. Even if they want to, they will have second thoughts,” he adds.Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Dalit organization members walking with slippers at Kambala Naicker street (Photo sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)

Madurai villagers save their hills, pools and livelihood from granite quarries

Common people from villages in Melur taluk reject the development that comes at the cost of environment and cultural heritage, and show that their protests can make authorities step backMadurai, Tamil Nadu: “Many villagers suffered from kidney ailments as the pools and borewells became highly contaminated. After the granite quarries shut, such deaths gradually decreased. However, agriculture was still almost impossible, which forced many to leave that village.” The searing pain of losses — of livelihood and loved one — is still evident in the words of D Indira (40), whose husband P Durairaj died of a kidney ailment a decade ago. Afterwards, she left her marital home at Saruguvalayapatti with her two school-going sons to live with her niece A Pushpavalli at Ottakovilpatti, located 15 km away. Everything went well until Madurai Collector MS Sangeetha issued a notification on October 3, inviting tender applications for extracting multi-coloured granites from four locations in Sekkipatti, Ayyapatti and Thiruchunai revenue villages in Melur taluk for a 20-year lease.The notification sent shock waves across these villages as they already have examples of devastation caused by illegal mining in the taluk before them. Protests were launched by people in not only the affected villages, but also from about 10 surrounding villages, including Kambur and Ottakovilpatti.Pushpavalli (32), one of the lead protest organisers, and her family sustain on a landholding measuring a little over two acres. “My chitthi [maternal aunt] was married off at 16, and widowed at 30. We could cultivate because there is no granite mining here. Almost all the rocks drain rainwater into adjacent tanks. Destroying this natural irrigation system means destroying our lives,” she said.Farmer Pushpavalli was at the forefront of organizing the women from the villages, a crucial factor for the success of their protest (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Diversity rules here  Arittapatti Biodiversity Heritage Site is spread across Arittapatti in Melur taluk and Meenakshipuram in Madurai East taluk. Arittapatti boasts of a rock-cut Shiva temple housing one of the only two sculptures of Laguleesa in the state, besides sculptures of Jain Tirthankaras with 2,200-year-old Tamil Brahmi scripts etched below them.Arittapatti could not have attained its special status if a similar protest did not take place in 2011, which forced the state government to go back on its order allowing a granite quarry in the same hillets that the government is keen on protecting now. The site has about 100 mountain pools, and shelters about 170 species of birds, and animals such as endangered slender loris. Though the villages that mounted protests recently are not officially a part of this site, their significance is no less. During a field visit, 101Reporters observed that a majority of the hillets have centuries-old Jain beds.  Ayyampatti, Sekkipatti and Kambur panchayats had passed grama sabha resolutions against granite quarries. Notably, Ayyampatti village council had initially passed a resolution to establish a granite quarry “for employment opportunities”, but it had to adopt an exactly opposite resolution at the grama sabha due to public outrage.The district administration did not conduct any public hearing of the villagers. District Collector Sangeetha stated at the farmers’ grievance meeting in October that public hearings are mandatory only when the proposed quarry area is above five acres.  The quarries are supposed to maintain a safety distance of 50 m from reservoirs, canals, civil structures and habitations. But encroachment of waterbodies by the quarries was rampant in the past. There is no specific safety distance mentioned with respect to agricultural lands; however, it is 7.5 m for patta land and 10 m for government poramboke land. Since various classifications of agricultural lands are also part of patta lands, the minimum distance explicitly prescribed for farmlands is just 7.5 m.  Following repeated representations and relentless protests, the auction was postponed. Later, the Collector cancelled it citing “administrative reasons”. However, fear looms large as the tender notification issued as a government order (GO) was withdrawn only through a press release dated November 29, 2023, making it legal for the district administration to invite the tender again. Following the 2011 protests, the GO that enabled the quarry auction itself was withdrawn, unlike the present situation. A few expressed suspicions that a similar tender may be called again, after the Lok Sabha elections.Women cutting across caste lines, actively took part in the protests (Photo sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)A perceived opportunity that turned fatal“When the quarries started operating 20 to 30 years ago, the villagers saw it as an employment opportunity. On realising the damage, they began to oppose mining. Because of the serious irregularities in the past, there are no active granite mines in the district. So the government wants them back,” said A Selvaraj (43), a Kambur native and protest organiser.  The district administration made Selvaraj sign a ‘security for good behaviour’ under Section 110 of the CrPC, which is usually charged against habitual offenders. He had to approach the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court (HC) to get the bond quashed. “Because of the pressure and negative publicity, the administration may not come back to these three panchayats, but other villages in Melur have to be cautious,” he said.Melur Revenue Divisional Officer S Jayanthi told 101Reporters that no new tender notification would be issued for the villages where it has been withdrawn recently.Notwithstanding, the Union Ministry of Mines conducted a preliminary study for establishing tungsten mines in Melur region recently. “This is a Union Government project. The state government has not been involved till this stage,” P Balakrishnan, Deputy Director, Department of Geology and Mining, Madurai district, told 101Reporters.To understand why the area may be subjected to further mining, one has to revisit its dark past. “I do not want to talk about my past,” a goat herder was emphatic when asked about illegal quarries. After much persuasion, she said, “The 1.5-acre agricultural land was our only source of income. After quarries came up, the land became barren all of a sudden.”  “One evening, pieces of rock fell on my house after a blast. My daughter, then aged 9, was saved by a distance of a ft or two. I went to the quarry and shouted at them. That very night, the goons of the quarry owner attacked my husband. Huge granite blocks were kept in our land to block access. We were forced to sell it for a pittance they offered,” she lamented.  The situation is dire in Adanjan Kanmaipatti, housing about 100 families. The village is named after Adanjan Kanmai, a pool that no longer exists. There were 12 pools, but none at present. “All these lands were once pools and farmlands,” said native P Karuppaiya, who had stopped farming to work in a quarry. He now rears two cows to make a living.Groundwater and rainwater flowing towards this erstwhile granite quarry cannot be used for agriculture (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Explaining environmental impacts  “Quarrying can lead to land degradation. Fine dust spreads through air and [potentially] destroys the natural surface vegetation,” said C Kavin Kumar, a doctorate holder in geotechnical engineering working as a soil investigation expert in Saudi Arabia.“Quarries can lower groundwater and surface water levels because of mining operations and dewatering [artificially removing water during mining, tunnelling etc.]. The groundwater conduit paths will be affected as rocks are removed,” he said, adding that leaching effect and transport of chemicals through air might have contaminated the soil.Even when the quarry is filled with water, the village pool, barely 50 m away, is in dearth of water. Lying closer to Adanjan Kanmaipatti end of the quarry, this is the only dry pool that 101Reporters saw among the 30-plus pools in over 15 villages. Farmlands in the villages adjacent to erstwhile quarries looked parched.Explaining the science behind it, Kumar said water from a nearby groundwater source might have drained towards the quarry as water will flow in the higher gradient direction. A higher gradient direction indicates the direction of the steep slope. In simple terms, the water inundated the quarry as its surface level is much lower than that of the pool.This huge rock at Sekkipatti was one of the proposed locations for granite quarries has been saved by the villagers for now (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Pandora’s box  Melur was little known outside before May 2012, when the then Madurai collector, U Sagayam, wrote to the state government alleging that major violations in granite mining have caused huge environmental damages and a loss of about Rs 16,000 crore to the state exchequer.Sagayam was moved out of Madurai after the explosive report, but later appointed as Legal Commissioner by the Madras HC to inquire into the illegalities, following a Public Interest Litigation in 2014. Many serious allegations came up against granite firms, including that of human sacrifice by the former driver of PRP Exports owner PR Palanisamy. Palanisamy and many others were convicted for illegal mining in the following years. However, the majority of the cases are still under trial.Sagayam submitted his report to the government through the Madras HC in 2015. The government told the court in 2018 that it has accepted a certain number of recommendations. However, the report has not been made public yet. Though the power shifted from AIADMK to DMK in 2021, the government stance has not changed.“In the report, I stated a loss of Rs 1,11,000 crore, of which Rs 70,000 crore was the value of the granite mined illegally and the remaining the government was legally bound to collect as a penalty from violators,” said Sagayam, who took voluntary retirement from the Civil Services in 2021.“Apart from deforestation, the agrarian economy and rural infrastructure were devastated. Tanks, lakes and channels that were part of the irrigation system were destroyed. The Geological Survey of India has ascertained the age of these hills as 200 to 250 crore years. Some of them have 2,200-year-old Tamil Brahmi scriptures and Jain beds,” said Sagayam, who even spent a night at a graveyard in E Malampatti village to prevent the destruction of evidence when allegations of human sacrifice came up.“My recommendations can be categorised into three — punishment for the guilty, monetary recovery in lieu of the resources exploited and ways to prevent such violations in future,” said Sagayam. However, the government has not yet communicated to him about the actions taken based on his report.Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Indira lost her husband for a kidney ailment when he was just 50 (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)

Crorepatis swindle wages as corruption rampant in MGNREGA works in Coimbatore, Tiruppur

Asset creation using machines documented as activities done by MGNREGA labourers to pay ineligible job card holders, even as eligible rural poor denied employment under the scheme Coimbatore/Tiruppur: R Narayanasamy (43), a businessman from Chinniyampalayam village panchayat in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district, is a partner in a gold finance company. He lives in a two-storey house and received Rs 11 crore as compensation for giving up his agricultural land for Coimbatore airport expansion. Nevertheless, he received Rs 4,864 and Rs 14,196 in his bank account as wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in FY21 and FY22, respectively. Similarly, his wife N Bakkiyam (48) received Rs 17,152 between January 2021 and March 2023.Another crorepati resident and textile mill owner, S Rangasamy (43) totally received Rs 23,000 in FY21 and FY22. These so-called MGNREGA workers are among the 18 ineligible beneficiaries identified by the MGNREGA ombudsperson of Coimbatore district, B Navaneethakrishnan, during his field inquiry this October.“I have received complaints against hundreds of ineligible beneficiaries, but being the only staff in my office, I have very huge limitations. So I inquire only very serious allegations,” Navaneethakrishnan tells 101Reporters. He has recommended to District Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati that money be recovered from ineligible beneficiaries and legal action be initiated against panchayat president Rajalakshmi Devarajan and erring authorities in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.Navaneethakrishnan informs that he has recommended withholding MGNREGA funds for the village until the money is fully recovered. “There are 63 such ineligible job card holders in my village panchayat. The ombudsperson could establish the identity of only 18,” complainant M Selvaraj (70) tells 101Reporters.Selvaraj, who used information in the MGNREGA website to unearth corruption, claims that he has sent the details of the remaining 45 people to the authorities and is awaiting action.The situation is no better in neighbouring Tiruppur district. Among the many shocking irregularities at Erasinampalayam village panchayat in Mulanur block is the swindling of wages by creating a fake job code.  According to the inquiry report submitted to Tiruppur Collector T Christuraj by ombudsperson M Premalatha, the panchayat has paid Rs 37,185 in wages for the works done on agricultural land owned by P Muthusamy, son of Palanisamy, at Naranavalasu. However, no such individual exists, which means no work was done. The land documents of a namesake from Erasinampalayam village was used to swindle money.  Premalatha has recommended to the Collector to instruct the Mulanur Block Development Officer (Village Panchayats) to recover the money from the job card holders who were credited wages for the works not done under MGNREGA.MNREGA workers at Perumanallur village panchayat in Tiruppur district (Photo - Sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Modus operandiReports of ombudspersons accessed by 101Reporters reveal that the modus operandi of swindling money includes creating fake job codes without carrying out work under MGNREGA — creating assets like roads, compound walls and public utilities using machines, but documenting them as works done by MGNREGA workers.Wages are credited only to select beneficiaries who are in connivance with the corrupt officials, mostly the panchayat president and/or secretary. A panchayat has many worker clusters with about 50 members each. There will be a cluster supervisor among the workers.“Some of the ineligible beneficiaries claimed the money was credited by mistake and they returned it to the panchayat. How is it possible if they had not shared their account numbers? Coincidentally, all of them live in the same neighbourhood of my panchayat president, whose husband was also the president for the previous two terms,” says Selvaraj.When 101Reporters contacted Rajalakshmi, her husband N Devarajan asserts, "You can consider me as the president's personal assistant... The media reports about the scam are fake. They are paid reports." He confirmed that the MGNREGA funds to the panchayat has not been withheld yet, but refused to comment about the ombudsperson's report. According to the data of Chinniyampalayam village panchayat, ineligible beneficiaries mostly worked on construction/asset creation jobs and not under regular MGNREGA works like conserving water bodies and drought proofing.“When the panchayat secretary creates a job card, the panchayat president has the responsibility to verify the jobseeker's financial status. Same diligence has to be followed in verifying land documents, while providing administrative sanction for the works on an individual’s lands. But sometimes these are wilfully overlooked even at the level of BDOs,” says Premalatha.Though uploading of e-muster rolls (attendance register) in the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) was implemented earlier this year to prevent fake attendance, the scenario is different on the ground.“Instances of fake attendance came down at first, but cluster supervisors started to use a loophole in the NMMS app. As only the group photo needs to be uploaded, they gave attendance to even those who did not feature in the photograph [i.e. those who do not work],” says R Kalaivani, ombudsperson of Thanjavur district. Kalaivani holds the distinction of being the only ombudsperson in Tamil Nadu who was once a worker under MGNREGA. She had been a cluster supervisor before she was appointed to her current position.Group photo uploaded in the NMMS portal makes it difficult to identify individuals. Local residents may be able to cross-check the individual's identity to prevent fake attendance (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Ombudspersons invisibilisedThirty-seven of the total 38 districts in Tamil Nadu, except Chennai, have MGNREGA ombudspersons. However, not many know about them. Last year, appointments were advertised in newspapers. But their effectiveness reflects in the poor number of complaints they receive.“Ombudspersons keep insisting the authorities to display their contact details at every village panchayat office. But the officials do not wish to do that as it can turn against them,” says Premalatha, who has completed 55 inquiries since she took over a year-and-a-half ago. Tiruppur district has 265 village panchayats across 13 blocks. There was not even a single complaint from over 90% village panchayats. Not because there is no grievance; but nobody knows there is a mechanism to complain.  A letter dated February 8 from Amit Kataria, Joint Secretary-MGNREGA, Ministry of Rural Development, to state governments mentions that all necessary support to carry out the assigned functions of ombudspersons, including support staff, office equipment, complaint box, telephone helpline, shall be provided by the district authority specified by the state government.Contrarily, the ombudspersons in Tamil Nadu are working alone, even without stenographers. “I have written to the district administration to provide me with separate staff, but nothing happened. An ombudsperson is equivalent to a District Revenue Officer [DRO]. Will they give such a chair and table to the DRO,” asks Navaneethakrishnan.In the hierarchy of district administration in Tamil Nadu, the DRO is next only to the Collector and fills in during his/her absence. However, since MGNREGA ombudspersons are not full-time government employees, they receive minimal support from the officials, especially at the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs).R Sumathi, Assistant Project Officer (Wages and Employment) at Tiruppur DRDA, tells 101Reporters that ombudspersons voluntarily visit the field to receive complaints, so that they will get a sitting charge (apparently, ombudspersons are not entitled to salaries).  Vehemently denying this, Navaneethakrishnan and Premalatha say the allegation defies logic. “If we are voluntarily getting complaints for non-issues, how are we receiving such an abysmally low number of complaints,” asks Premalatha. Navaneethakrishnan also laments that the officials at panchayat union offices sit on files for months together whenever ombudspersons seek an information or action taken report from them.MNREGA workers can be tasked as agricultural labourers under the 'Works on Individual's Land' category (Photo - Sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Ineffective, corrupt social auditsUntil a few months ago, there were social audit wings at DRDAs across the state. However, they were disbanded after numerous allegations, including seeking bribes in return for not escalating corruption, surfaced. The state government is now on the move to hire new members.Headed by a district resource person employed on contract, the wing had a block resource person in every block. It trained about 10 to 20 members of the general public in every block and took them along while auditing.“There were many instances where the wing members informed the panchayat presidents in advance about what they will audit during their visit,” says Karuna Muthiah, an independent researcher on rights-based campaigns. He was earlier a part of the Villupuram district social audit wing.  “What has happened in Tiruppur and Coimbatore has been happening across the state. Initially, the MGNREGA wages were handed over in cash. So, if a job card holder’s name is misused, he or she might never know about it. But since money is credited to bank accounts nowadays, it is very obvious that ineligible beneficiaries are colluding with the erring authorities,” he says.“Even if a financial irregularity is unearthed, the high level committee instituted to act upon it is highly skewed. Of the five members, four, including the Collector and DRDA officials, are government employees. The district resource person had severe limitations in taking action, even if corruption was established through inquiry,” says Muthiah.He also questions the very composition of the wing at the state-level. “The director, joint director and assistant directors were all past DRDA officials. They may downplay many irregularities as administrative difficulties.”  Corruption in MGNREGA begins when the panchayat issues job cards to ineligible beneficiaries. Fake attendance is given by some cluster supervisors, appointed to this position only because they are in connivance with the panchayat president or secretary. “Not just MGNREGA, reports of social audits, ongoing projects, and income and expenses of the panchayat are also submitted at gram sabha meetings. People should attend them and question irregularities, if any... The best way to thwart corruption in MGNREGA is public verification of data on the website. The supervising officers are outsiders, but locals know whether a work is really going on, and can identify ineligible beneficiaries, fake attendance etc.,” says Premalatha. Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - MNREGA employs mostly rural woman across the country (Photo - Sourced by Vignesh A, 101Reporters)

Sanitary workers in Tamil Nadu fight twin banes of casteism, administrative apathy

Pitchaiyammal and Parthiban of Madurai district not receiving their wages for 15 months is not an isolated case, but an extension of the poor treatment that tribals and Dalits have faced over the years Vadipatti, Tamil Nadu: “I have been cleaning human faeces for 35 years for extremely low wages. Already my life is very bad, they made it miserable by not paying me for almost 16 months,” laments M Pitchaiyammal (50), a part-time sanitary worker at Mannadimangalam village panchayat in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu.Similarly, her son M Parthiban (27) did not receive his wages for 15 months, citing a lack of proof of attendance. Both allege that they have not been given the opportunity to sign the attendance register despite repeated attempts. “Whenever we visit, the panchayat office is either locked or the panchayat secretary would tell us that the register was not present,” they claim. In this case, the panchayat office is about three km from their village Ayyappanayakanpatti and the travel time, including the bus wait time, is not less than an hour. So, they usually try to sign once a week or fortnight. Pitchaiyammal came to Ayyappanayakanpatti as a child bride. She initially helped her mother-in-law who was a sanitary worker. After her demise, Pitchaiyammal and her husband P Murugan (55) took up the work.The illiterate couple from Malai Kuravar community, a Scheduled Tribe, does not exactly know how long they have been doing this job. “When I was married, I was just 15. Now I am 50. As soon as I came, they made me clean faeces,” says Pitchaiyammal, looking at her husband with a satirical smile. “However, as per the records, I started working about 25 years back.”The couple made a few hundred rupees initially, but now Murugan earns Rs 8,500 and Pitchaiyammal Rs 7,500 a month. Parthiban, who had dropped out after class eight, has been in the job for three years. He earns Rs 7,200 per month. Besides Parthiban, the couple has three daughters.In the villages of Tamil Nadu, the preference to employ sanitary workers in other menial jobs has always been less due to the stigma associated with their work such as cleaning public toilets, open defecation and sewage drains. Hence, they rely on whatever they make through sanitary work.“This is the only tribal family in the village. Their ancestors lived on a small hill nearby. They came down to work for the dominant castes and were treated like slaves in the olden days. Unable to bear the discrimination, many families returned to the hills decades ago,” says K Mangaiyarkarasi, a native of Ayyappanayakanpatti affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (CPI-ML).Mannadimangalam village panchayat does not have a proper mechanism to dump and segregate solid waste (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)The ordeal begins After not receiving wages for March last year, Pitchaiyammal and Parthiban received partial payments by April-end. But neither of them knew that it would take another 15 months for the next payment. Pitchaiyammal, who has no idea about the Gregorian calendar, says the Tamil calendar has entered into the 16th month since she last received wages.“My wages were credited every two or three months. Whenever I inquired with panchayat clerk V Thirusenthil [now re-designated as panchayat secretary] about the pending wages of my wife and son, he kept on saying that the money will be credited once the Central fund comes,” says Murugan.  However, Vadipatti Block Development Officer (BDO) S Kathiravan tells 101Reporters that the wages of sanitary workers are paid from the state funds. “The Rural Development Department is not dependent on any Central fund for this expense,” says Kathiravan, the top authority for 23 village panchayats in Vadipatti block.All these months, Murugan’s wages ran the household with six members, including one of his widowed daughter and her three school-going children. Parthiban, who lives with his spouse, earned money by selling vegetables and doing electrical works.With no positive signals from the panchayat, Pitchaiyammal registered her grievance with BDO Kathiravan this June. “However, the deputy BDO’s report suggested that there was no evidence of them working in the attendance register. We met the BDO and asked why no show-cause notice was sent to the workers if they did not report for duty. He had no answer,” says C Mathivanan, a senior CPI-ML functionary.Mathivanan brought the issue to the notice of National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) Chairperson M Venkatesan in July. Though no formal complaint was filed, Venkatesan informed Mathivanan about the rights and entitlements of sanitary workers. The CPI-ML activists listed those rights and pasted wall posters across the villages in Mannadimangalam panchayat.“This time, the officials were ready to disburse the pending wages, on condition of providing proof. Pitchaiyammal took a paper and pen when she went to work, and requested the residents of Ayyappanayakanpatti to sign the statement that she had delivered her duty. After submitting the signed statement, the administration started releasing her pending wages in instalments, along with her full monthly wages,” Mathivanan says. “We remove faeces, blood-stained menstrual clothes and all the dirt that others will not even look at. After returning from work, we have to wait at least an hour to forget the odour and the nauseous visuals before having food. How can my heart allow me to go unpaid,” asked Pitchaiyammal.Mangaiyarkarasi, who was instrumental in escalating the non-payment with the panchayat union office, alleges that this is not administrative apathy but caste discrimination. Hailing from a dominant Other Backward Class, she has invited the wrath of many villagers for opposing discrimination. Though the grievances of the sanitary workers have been partially addressed, no action has been taken against Thirusenthil. 101Reporters did not approach him for comments as the workers feared repercussions. Panchayat secretaries are often more influential than the presidents as they are rarely transferred. Thirusenthil has been the panchayat secretary of Mannadimangalam for over 21 years.  The BDO too did not give a direct answer on why the other sanitary workers of the panchayat began to receive partial wages every month after the issue came to public eye. “Now the issue has been sorted out and the workers are paid every month,” he claims.Though manual scavenging is prohibited by law in India, Pitchaiyammal and Pathiban claim that they manually remove the defecation around public toilets in the panchayat. Speaking to 101Reporters, all the sanitary workers confirm that no machinery has been provided for their work, other than brooms and dustpans.Female sanitation workers of Mannadimangalam, from Arunthathiyar caste (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Missing benefitsThe situation is no different for the other sanitary workers in Mannadimangalam panchayat. 101Reporters spoke to seven of them, living next to each other and belonging to the Arunthathiyar community, a Scheduled Caste (SC).One among them, M Ramuthai (34) stays about 300 m from the panchayat office and gets to sign the register regularly. But she too gets her wages only every two or three months. Sometimes, I get it only in the fourth month. “After the posters were pasted, we started getting it every month,” says Ramuthai, who has been in the job for six years.Ramuthai did not get any financial assistance from the panchayat when she fell off the e-rickshaw collecting garbage a few months ago. “I suffered a leg fracture and had to be hospitalised. I was out of duty for two weeks. I was paid for these days, but I did not receive any other monetary support,” she says.The panchayat appoints sanitary workers after fixing their payments, which is usually around Rs 5,000 at the time of appointment. All of them are entitled to full wages, but they get only partial wages every month. That too, sometimes as low as Rs 1,500. Ramuthai says she did not receive any financial aid from the panchayat when she suffered an injury at work (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Ramuthai and others are unaware of the financial assistance provided by the Tamil Nadu Sanitary Workers Welfare Board to the families of sanitary workers in case of accidents, marriage and more. None of the seven female workers was aware of the emoluments or employee insurance.  All sanitary workers (full-time and part-time) are eligible to join the welfare board. However, there is neither active enrolment by local bodies nor proper communication from the board. The membership application forms are usually distributed through the respective local bodies and the primary requirement is the ID card. The panchayat has not issued ID cards to Ramuthai and fellow workers.Arunthathiyars are among the three most populous Dalit castes in the state, but they are the most subjugated one too, sometimes even by fellow Dalits. Due to its backwardness, a 3% sub-reservation has been made for them within the 18% reservation for SCs.Though their working hours are fixed (9 am to 12 pm daily), the women claim it takes about five hours to complete. “Let alone regular wages, we were buying even the shovel and broom with our own money. We spend Rs 200 to 300 every few months on them,” says M Muthumari (45).  Without proper disposal system, the solid waste is mostly burnt on the roadside (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)Rural local bodies neglectedThe state has 21 municipal corporations, 122 municipalities and 529 town panchayats, all categorised as urban local bodies. Last December, Chief Minister MK Stalin launched in Madurai the Sanitation Workers’ Development Scheme, meant to benefit 53,301 sanitary workers in urban local bodies, of which 18,859 are permanent employees.This October, the state government announced the formation of the corpus fund of Rs 50 crore (Rs 10 crore from government and rest mobilised by urban local bodies and state public sector undertakings). Again, there was no mention of rural local bodies, which accounted for about half the state population. By looking at the number of urban sanitary workers, it can be assumed that the per capita allocation under the corpus fund would be a meagre Rs 938.As for rural local bodies, Tamil Nadu has 37 district panchayats that are divided into 388 block panchayats, which in turn are further divided into 12,525 village panchayats. In the recent months, the district administrations have been calling for enrolment of sanitary workers with the welfare board to make them eligible for various financial assistances. However, Ramuthai and her fellow workers are yet to know about it. Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Pitchaiyammal and her family have been doing sanitation work for many generations (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)

Uthukuli butter: The case of missing buffaloes and a small town’s identity

Flourishing job work units, low availability of local fodder and lack of a GI tag sound death knell for buffalo rearing in this town in Tamil Nadu   Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu: Packets of snacks and a small heap of onions await customers in front of a road-facing house in Mettukadai village, located six km south of Uthukuli — a town in Tamil Nadu famed for its butter. Not more than nine of the 100 households here rear buffaloes, in stark contrast to the four or five bovines in each dwelling almost 15 years ago.Shopkeeper Chandramani is one among the few buffalo rearers of Mettukadai, but she regrets not knowing how to work at a garment factory in Tiruppur, unlike the majority of the women here. Besides the shop, the family has an acre of land where Chandramani’s husband cultivates sorghum (broomcorn millet) once in a year to get dry fodder for the four buffaloes.Chandramani and her husband cannot depend entirely on the income generated from milk. “The amount I spend buying hay, husk and cattle feed every month is between Rs 15,000 and 20,000. My income, on the other hand, is just enough to repay what I have borrowed to feed the bovines,’’ says Chandramani, who guesses her age to be around 60. She makes Rs 100 to 200 per day from the shop.Chandramani’s present situation is typical of the buffalo rearers in and around Uthukuli. All of them are into it either because they do not know any other job or it is the only option to put their small landholdings to use.Butter and ghee from cow's milk are sold widely in Uthukuli as the buffalo population is dwindling (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters) Chugging towards popularityLocated about 15 km east of district capital Tiruppur — the knitwear export hub of India — Uthukuli’s rise to fame was driven by the establishment of a railway junction in the 1930s. The villagers saw an opportunity to sell curd and buttermilk to the passengers of trains passing through this parched land. Much to their surprise, the taste of their buttermilk enthralled the Malayalam-speaking traders, who began to make a stopover in Uthukuli to buy butter. When the product got a good reception in the erstwhile princely states of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar, the frequency of their visits increased.“The following decades saw butter and ghee traders from other parts of South India, including the Telugu speakers from the erstwhile Madras Presidency and those from the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom, frequenting Uthukuli to procure butter,'' R Kumar, Uthukuli native and district president of Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), tells 101Reporters.‘’For the villagers of Uthukuli, their curd and buttermilk were trivial things as they had not tasted the same produced outside. Only the traders from Kerala let them know that their glossy white butter remained intact for over three months at room temperature, which was not the case of the butter produced elsewhere,’’ he adds.River Noyyal, polluted by knitwear dyeing effluents, passing through Uthukuli region (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)A slow deathNoyyal, a tributary of River Cauvery, flows six km south of Uthukuli, which has a population of a little over 10,000. The water flow is not perennial, so rain-fed agriculture is the only way out.‘’Since there was no cultivation of paddy and other millets, the sorghum straw became the main feed for buffaloes. Drought-resistant grass species such as kolukattai pul (Anjan grass) were also fed. As a result, the milk of Uthukuli's buffaloes was thicker than the milk of buffaloes and cows from other parts of the state. Since the milk was creamier than the normal buffalo milk, the butter was thicker with less proportion of water in it,’’ says Kumar.However, the rise of the knitwear industry in Tiruppur in the 1980s opened up many employment opportunities, especially for unskilled and semi-skilled labourers with little or no education. This, along with irregular rainfall, sounded death knell for the dairy industry.  “About 20 years ago, the population of buffaloes in my village outnumbered that of humans. Nowadays, so much money goes into feeding them as sorghum cultivation is not as common as it was three decades ago,’’ says Karattupalayam native Kumara Rangasamy (59). True to his words, many farmers say they are buying hay, coming mostly from the Cauvery Delta districts. Kumara Rangasamy, who left buffalo rearing almost two decades ago (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)“To work in a garment factory, all I needed were two hands and legs,” adds Rangasamy, who quit that job to launch a second hand automobile spare shop in Uthukuli over a decade ago. The five acres of land that his family owns has not seen any cultivation since then, except for a few sorghum to sustain his only cow.Uthukuli now has more than 200 job work units that support the knitwear industry in Tiruppur. “This has increased the demand for land. Even if one does not cultivate, the land’s market value keeps rising,” says Kumar. The shift away from agriculture and cattle rearing reflects on the number of buffaloes in Tiruppur district. From 47,740 in 2012, it has dropped by 43.17% to 27,129 in 2017. The decline rate for the entire state during the same period is 33.52%, according to the Tamil Nadu government’s Statistical Handbook 2020-21.  Can butter be a buffer?On the surface, it may look all right to move on from buffaloes and butter to make a decent income at knitwear factories. But a few more things should be taken into account before reaching that conclusion.The total knitwear export of India in the 2022-23 fiscal is worth Rs 63,239 crore. The contribution of Tiruppur is Rs 34,350 crore (54.3%), according to Tiruppur Exporters’ Association. Tiruppur has witnessed growth in export orders for the last two years, after three dull years due to COVID-19. But the numbers look attractive due to a weak rupee against the US dollar.Otherwise, there is not much growth. It is evident in the news reports of recent years, in which the factory owners lament about receiving only 20% or 40% of their usual export orders. Tiruppur, also known as ‘Dollar City’, easily feels the repercussions of global events.‘’Factory owners started employing migrant workers in large numbers around 2010, which gradually reduced the proportion of local employees. Even the migrants who worked for low wages do not find regular jobs now and are switching to other menial jobs at construction sites and restaurants,” says a supervisor at a private garment factory in Tiruppur, on condition of anonymity.“Even if there is a positive trend in exports, the stiff competition from countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam and the gradual adoption of automation, incentivised through Technology Upgradation Funds, will further reduce the number of workers,’’ he estimates.A few knitwear workers this reporter spoke to get only three to four days of work per week. It was six days before the pandemic. They were employed for one-and-a-half shifts (12 hours) per day, earning Rs 500 to 1,000, depending on the department they worked. Now, they get just one shift (eight hours) with Rs 300 to 700 as wages, even though they are willing to work as they did in the past.  In such a scenario, butter can act as a buffer for Uthukuli’s local economy. The long wait for GI tag‘‘Butter from other parts of Tamil Nadu are labelled as Uthukuli butter and sold in neighbouring states. Even the produce made from cow's milk has that label. Such practices affect the reputation of Uthukuli butter,’’ P Rasu, the manager of a butter-manufacturing unit affiliated to Khadi Industries Commission, tells 101Reporters.“Providing a Geographical Indication [GI] tag will help curb the misappropriation of Uthukuli butter's legacy,’’ says Kumar. The Geographic Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, criminalises the misuse of GI tags, with a jail term of up to three years and a fine of up to Rs 2 lakh.  With the pandemic proving that the knitwear industry is not unassailable, strengthening Uthukuli's butter industry is of utmost importance. The butter-manufacturing units had active trade unions before, but not anymore. Thanks to this lack of organised representation and lacklustre administration, the GI tag has remained elusive so far.“The GI tag is much talked about, but nothing happens on the ground. Many small units could not sustain and have already shut,” Duraisamy, a private dairy unit owner in Uthukuli, tells 101Reporters.Another dairy manufacturer, on condition of anonymity, informs that Tiruppur Sub-Collector Sruthan Jai Narayanan is coordinating the administration's efforts to get the GI tag. Meetings were held and a WhatsApp group created to communicate with all stakeholders.However, attempts to reach the Sub-Collector over phone and through messages did not solicit any response. Way forwardA buffalo can provide around five litres of milk for four to five months since calving. Generally, buffalo farmers here rear two to four animals, so that milk from at least one or two can be obtained at a time.According to the butter manufacturers, milk cream extracted from seven to eight litres of buffalo milk will yield one kg of butter that is sold for Rs 450 to 500. This means the market price of one kg butter is almost equal to the wage of one shift at a knitwear factory. Even at a time when fake brands are dominating the market, the buffalo owners are able to break-even, despite all the money they spend on cattle feed.After the receipt of GI tag, it will be a criminal offence to pass off the butter produced elsewhere or made from cow’s milk as Uthukuli butter. This will prevent others from hijacking brand identity, besides increasing the demand for GI-tagged butter. This, in turn, will make farmers raise more buffaloes.In terms of exports, Tiruppur district ranks third in the state, with Chennai and Kancheepuram claiming the first two slots. If the butter industry in Uthukuli gets enough thrust, it will be another jewel in the crown for the district. Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Chandramani, a woman farmer with her buffaloes (Photo - Vignesh A, 101Reporters)