Coimbatore's Social Activist Who Is Fighting Against Land Mafias On His Own

The 50-year-old has worked fearlessly for sixteen years, using RTI applications to obtain information from the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporations and the Directorate of Town and Country Planning. Thiyagarajan places up a picket or a fence to indicate that the reserve site pertains to the corporation after checking the facts.

According to the activist, he has retrieved approximately 26 acres of encroached land with a market worth of more than 300 crore. He has also aided members of residential welfare societies in their efforts to reclaim encroached land across the 100 wards.

Thiyagarajan has discovered and recovered around 50 encroachments in reserve sites in the Coimbatore corporation alone. However, 10 of the reserve sites are engulfed in legal wranglings.

It all started in 2004 when he was 34 years old, when three persons reportedly intruded on his neighbouring land in the reserve site of GRG Nagar. The matter is now pending in the Supreme Court, following legal wrangling in subordinate courts, district courts, and the Madras High Court.

Meanwhile, in 2011, the activist assisted at the recovery of 51 cents in Alamu Nagar, near Gandhipuram, which was the largest cent infringed by a resident within the municipal limits. Not only that, but he has additionally reclaimed notable encroached land in Ramanathapuram, including as Kalapatti, Vilankurichi, and Kothari.