Life in a treacherous terrain affected by Maoism in Karnataka

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For nearly three decades, 60-year-old Raju Gowda, a tribal leader of the Malekudiya community, has been fighting for the improvement of roads in the Naadpal Gram Panchayat limits in Hebri taluk of Udupi district of Karnataka. Only narrow mud roads connect many of the hamlets that dot this Western Ghats region to the mainland.

One such road goes to the three now-vacant houses of three brothers at Peetabailu, where Maoist leader Vikram Gowda was killed in an alleged encounter with Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) personnel on November 18. The village is nestled in a valley at the foot of two hills.

It is impossible, Raju Gowda admits, for the government to spend crores of rupees to take permanent measures for improving the undulating narrow roads. These houses are located on patches of revenue land in the Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary (of Kudremukh Wildlife Division) where there is a bar on paving roads. “The basic thing we ask the government is to put a layer of mud over the road to make it easy for residents to walk or use their vehicles. Vehicles of those who have licence to move wooden logs in the forest also use these roads,” he says.

A bridge across a stream on the road leading to Jayant Gowda’s house at Peetabailu. The bridge, which replaced the wooden makeshift structure, is among the few permanent constructions in the vicinity of the encounter spot.

A bridge across a stream on the road leading to Jayant Gowda’s house at Peetabailu. The bridge, which replaced the wooden makeshift structure, is among the few permanent constructions in the vicinity of the encounter spot.
| Photo Credit:
UMESH S. SHETTIGAR

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, attempts made by the government to relocate tribal residents in these areas fuelled the Maoist movement in Karnataka. After over two decades, the Maoist movement may have suffered a severe setback, but the fear of displacement remains. The latest looming threat, according to tribal community leaders, has been the Kasturirangan committee report on the Western Ghats, even though Karnataka has rejected it.

With a number of petitions, the government, through the Naadpal Gram Panchayat, has been regularly sanctioning amounts ranging between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh for putting layers of mud on roads. Showing recently done levelling work for the 100-metre-long road with a steep ascent leading to 12 houses of the community members, Raju Gowda says he and a few other villagers, along with ANF staffers, worked for about seven days to remove the mud by the roadside to level the stretch.

“At the end of this work, each villager who worked on the road earned ₹5 per day,” says the elder, whose main earning comes from ferrying people and carrying construction material in this undulating terrain in his jeep. His vehicle is among the three jeeps and two autorickshaws in the gram panchayat, which the villages are all heavily dependent on during health emergencies and other needs.

“We are only raising our concerns to get relief from the government. We have not favoured Maoists using arms against the government for the fulfilment of our demands,” Raju Gowda is keen to clarify while taking the team of The Hindu in his vehicle to Peetabailu from Kabbinale near Hebri. 

Houses in these villages use solar lights provided by the government since power lines are not allowed to be drawn. The villages were provided with water supply lines by the Naadpal Gram Panchayat in 2022-23 as part of a drinking water scheme. The government also recently built a bridge across a stream, which serves just a handful of houses in the area. Apart from villagers, ANF personnel were involved in building the bridge. They have also built a house for a naati vaidya (a village doctor) and painted a house of a physically challenged person. These are among the few permanent works done in the entire area.

People living in areas in Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary limits in Naadpal Gram Panchayat have a hard time riding and trekking through the undulating rocky terrain to reach school, health centre or a grocery store.

People living in areas in Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary limits in Naadpal Gram Panchayat have a hard time riding and trekking through the undulating rocky terrain to reach school, health centre or a grocery store.
| Photo Credit:
UMESH S. SHETTIGAR

The encounter and after

It was in Peetabailu that Vikram was shot dead by ANF personnel. Police sources say they had a tip-off that a Maoist team, active in the area recently, would come to the village and they waited there and confronted Vikram when he turned up. The police claim that while Vikram was killed in the encounter, his associates vanished into the forest. The police recovered a 9-mm carbine from Vikram.

Civil liberties activists have demanded a probe into the encounter as per the National Human Rights Commission norms, which has not been initiated so far.

After a lull of many years, when Maoist activists from the State moved to the Wayanad-Kannur rural beltin neighbouring Kerala, a team of eight activists, who call themselves the Kabini Dalam, had been seen multiple times in Karnataka since March 2024. The members of this team include Mundagaru Lata alias Likkamma, John alias Jayanna, Vanajakshi, and Sundari from the State, Jisha from Kerala, and Ramesh from Tamil Nadu, apart from Vikram, sources say.

While there have been rumours in the area that some of these Maoists wanted to surrender, Banjagere Jayaprakash, a member of the Karnataka State committee to oversee the implementation of the rehabilitation policy to surrender/assimilate left-wing extremists (LWEs), says there had been no feelers from the Maoists. “Neither Vikram Gowda nor anyone else contacted us. Post the encounter killing, we have renewed our efforts, but there has been no response,” he told The Hindu. The ANF claims that the Kabini Dalam was trying to re-establish its base in Karnataka.

Anti-Naxal Force personnel outside a house at Peetabailu in Naadpal Gram Panchayat limits in Hebri taluk of Udupi district. 

Anti-Naxal Force personnel outside a house at Peetabailu in Naadpal Gram Panchayat limits in Hebri taluk of Udupi district. 
| Photo Credit:
UMESH S. SHETTIGAR

What the fight meant

Vikram was not a stranger to Peetabailu. He hailed from Kudlu, near the famous trekking spot Kudlu falls, in the same Naadpal Gram Panchayat. Villagers have faint memories of Vikram’s regular visits in his childhood to the annual fair of the revered spirit Odamraya Daiwa. They had also seen Vikram take part, as a member of the Karnataka Vimochana Ranga, in agitations held two decades ago in the anti-Kudremukh National Park movement.

Sadashiva Gowda, a resident of Kuchhooru, near Vikram’s village Kudlu says Vikram was a well-behaved boy. “He worked as a supplier in a hotel in the area. As he was quite outspoken in meetings, forest officials and the police started targeting him. Vikram openly interacted with people who empathised with forest dwellers’ fight against displacement. For this, the police had assaulted him several times. This angered him and may have eventually prompted him to take up weapons,” he says.

Vikram went underground in 2002 and by the time he was killed, he had over 110 cases against him — 64 in Karnataka and 50 in Kerala — including three murder cases, of two alleged police informers and a police constable. 

“He saw a tragic end. But it is because of his fight as a member of the Karnataka Vimochana Ranga that we are still in our land. If he had not done it, we would have been displaced long back,” Sadashiva Gowda says.

He says the primary need of forest dwellers is proper roads. “We have to trek a minimum of 3 km to drop and bring back our children from school. As no earthmovers are allowed in the forest area, roadworks are done manually by all of us. The nearest health facility is at least a one-hour trek away,” says Sadashiva Gowda.

A file photo of security personnel during a combing operation in Kabbinale forest area in Udupi district.

A file photo of security personnel during a combing operation in Kabbinale forest area in Udupi district.
| Photo Credit:
PTI

Harsh realities

The situation is no different in other areas on the foothills of the Western Ghats.

When The Hindu visited an anganwadi in one such village, Yadagunda in Chikkamagaluru district, the centre had only one child. “Three children attend the school regularly, but today only one child is here,” said anganwadi teacher Girija. The centre serves children from Bittumakki, Horale, Yadagunda, and Kadegundi villages.

It functions from the building that was part of the government primary school, which no longer exists. The few schools that were functioning earlier have closed down due to decreasing admissions. As transport is a big issue in the region with no bus service yet, parents put their children in residential schools in nearby towns after they turn six.

Local people argue that the harsh realities of the locality had a direct link to the spread of the Maoist movement in the area. Yadagunda is the place from where two women, Horale Jaya and Komala, joined the Maoist movement two decades ago and returned home under the State government’s rehabilitation policy. Mundagaru Lata (part of the Kabini Dalam), who is still active in the movement, is a native of Mundagaru, a nearby village. She and other suspected Maoists recently visited a family at Kadegundi. This led senior police officials rushing to the place.

“The officers reached the place easily as it was not raining. During the rainy season, no vehicle navigates these narrow, slushy lanes,” says Rame Gowda, a local resident. Whenever a family member falls sick, they have to hire a four-wheel drive vehicle to carry them. Those who cannot afford vehicles have to carry the patients on their shoulders.

A 100-m stretch of road leading to 12 houses of Malekudiyas at Kuchhoor near Peetabailu was levelled recently and a roadside drain was constructed by forest dwellers using funds given by the State government.

A 100-m stretch of road leading to 12 houses of Malekudiyas at Kuchhoor near Peetabailu was levelled recently and a roadside drain was constructed by forest dwellers using funds given by the State government.
| Photo Credit:
UMESH S. SHETTIGAR

People within the Kudremukh National Park area are facing more restrictions. The residents of Vinoba Nagar, once a colony of labourers working for the now-closed Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL), have no power connection. Except for the street lights, they have no power supply. A few of them have drawn electricity lines from the street lights. They do not have records for the place where they have built their huts. Following repeated appeals, the government has identified land near Kalasa, around 20 km away, for their rehabilitation. However, the procedure to allot them sites has not been completed.

Mani, a native of Tamil Nadu, says he came to Kudremukh for a daily wage of ₹5. As the company closed in 2005, he lost the job. With no place to return, he stayed in the labour colony with his family.

“Around four years ago, a community toilet was built for the colony. But we never use it as there is no water supply. Imagine our plight during heavy rain,” says Chandramma, a native of Ballari district who continues to live in what was once a labour colony.

Of the over 1,350 families living in the park limits, around 600 have submitted applications seeking rehabilitation. However, the rest have refused to move. The Maoists have always opposed the eviction of people from the park limits. A few youths from the region became left-wing extremists by joining the protests against the restrictions on the local people in the name of a national park.

Improve living conditions 

The only way to end the Maoist movement in Karnataka is to solve problems being faced by tribals living in the western ghats, and encounters are no solution, says Banjagere Jayaprakash. Some members of the rehabilitation committee he is part of recently visited Peetabailu and adjoining villages, following Vikram’s encounter. 

“The daily life of tribals in these areas has become an ordeal. Complaints of harassment from the Forest Department — cases being filed and hefty fines being levied over the collection of minor forest produce — are routine. Most of them still do not have any land documents. These villages are so remote that they have to walk 8 km one way to even work as manual labour. None of the government schemes have reached them. Except for solar lighting and heating, no development initiatives have reached them,” Jayaprakash says.

“As these are declared forest areas, no work can be taken up under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as well. Even allowing the MGNREGS work will improve their conditions to some extent,” he argues.

Appeal to Maoists

He has also appealed to Maoists to abjure the armed struggle. “We will make our best efforts to coordinate with the government, ensure a safe passage, and work with the government for a speedy trial in cases,” Jayaprakash says. 

Trials dragging on for years have been a deterrent to surrender. Seven Maoist activists remain active in the State, security agencies maintain.

Director-General of Police (Internal Security) Pranob Mohanty says that the government is keen to bring the remaining Maoists into the mainstream.  

Sirimane Nagaraj, a former Maoist who joined the mainstream in 2014, says that the State, society, and the CPI (Maoist) party were all responsible for the tragic turn of events. “The Maoists have to give up guns. The China model which was adopted is not the right way to fight injustices, experience has taught us,” he says. 

‘Did not want to orphan brother’

Suguna, the younger sister of Vikram, says she has fond memories of the time she had spent along with Vikram and their younger brother Suresh Gowda at their ancestral house at Kudlu.

The family claimed Vikram’s body and performed the last rites on their one-acre ancestral land. “We did not want to orphan our brother,” Suguna says.

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