A resident lighting a diesel lantern at his hutment in the Arippa settlement in Kulathupuzha, Kollam, where over 250 families still live off grid.
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN
For more than 10 years, 42-year-old Shyni clung to a single, modest hope—to sit down for a traditional Onam feast with her two sons inside a real home. When she finally received a title deed for 10 cents of land six months ago, it felt like the end of her long, gruelling vigil at the Arippa Bhoosamaram (land struggle) site here.Instead, the paper in her hands has turned this Onam into a bitter marker of betrayal. Ms. Shyni’s is among more than 200 landless families who received pattayams in February, believing their long struggle was over. Today, those documents sit worthless inside ramshackle tarpaulin sheds, shredded by heavy monsoon rains. Rather than granting security, the State’s gesture has locked the families into an administrative trap that leaves them worse off than before the agitation ended.Forest dept. NOCThe Revenue department reportedly issued the title deeds without securing a mandatory no objection certificate (NOC) from the Forest department, which claims the assigned plots remain protected forest land under the strict provisions of the Forest Conservation Act.
