CHENNAI: Residents of Thervoy Kandigai, a village in Thiruvallur district, held a demonstration in the city yesterday protesting the acquisition of their common grazing grounds and nearby reserve forest lands for SIPCOT's Industrial Park initiated during the DMK regime. The protest meeting was chaired by senior CPI leader R Nallakannu.“The SIPCOT Industrial Park, which has swallowed the village lands, houses a distillery owned by Kalaignar TV MD, Sharad Kumar. The plant and the SIPCOT Park in totality is in violation of environmental rules of the country and also against the interest of the Dalit residents,” said Nallakannu, addressing the media. “Hence we request the present Chief Minister to take action on the issue and bring relief for the Dalit villagers.” He also said that the villagers depend on these lands for their livelihood as their source of income is from here. “Taking away of this land by the SIPCOT without the consensus of the people was an act against their interest,” he said.“Our lands were dependent on the water sources lying in the area where now the SIPCOT is placed. With the construction of the park, water source for our fields has died,” said Gautham, a resident of Thervoy.Eight dalit villagers from Thervoy Kandigai, a predominantly Scheduled Caste village in Thiruvallur District of Tamil Nadu were arrested on February 15 based on false charges filed by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamilnadu (SIPCOT). The arrested villagers, comprising small farmers and cattle grazers who led their village were against the transfer of 250 hectares of community forests and grazing lands to SIPCOT for handover to French tyre multinational Michelin.The protest began when many trees were mowed down, and fences were being erected to keep the marginal cattle-herders from accessing the village commons for grazing. The arrests and the police-led takeover attempt by SIPCOT prompted the 1,200 villagers to take part in an indefinite hunger strike from February 15.
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