Tribals-excise personnel face-off

Visakhapatnam: Tribal farmers in all probability might revolt against the excise department in a big way after special teams began destroying ganja plants which were ready for harvesting.

In the second spell of drive, the teams destroyed 226 acres of plants and planning to uproot the plants till January.
But on October 5, the excise personnel were in a shock after a couple of women damaged the vehicle of an assistant commissioner of excise department who was supervising the operations in Sariapalle village under Paderu mandal in Visakhapatnam district.

The incident could be an isolated but the sources in the agency said if the livelihood was snatched from them, they would be forced to create obstacles to the special teams visiting their village for destruction of the crop.

“Villages where ganja is mostly grown are barren and unfit for even podu cultivation. The forest has also depleted considerably and the villagers are unable to fetch any forest produce for living.

Ganja harvesting and the trade, which began small and became robust, came in handy for these people who otherwise would have starved,’’ said an Adivasi activist.
Sources said the smugglers, who are mostly benefited from the trade, seem to be encouraging the tribals to resist the special teams ganja eradicaiton drive. Smugglers, mostly hailing from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, give huge amount as advance to the tribal farmers.

Another activist said though the farmers are not discussing about unified revolt against the drive but in remote places they have been discussing about.
“The women, who damaged the jeep at Sariapalle, told the excise officials that they should destroy the crop after providing them an alternative source of living,’’ he added.

When contacted, the offcials belonging to the excise departmtn said that they have no information about the farmers planning an organised resistance against the drive.
The agency has a history of several revolts over land alienation and forceful eviction.