Madikeri: Dark clouds of fear and anxiety hover over Diddalli again as cases stand registered against several tribals from the hamlet who have resorted to re-constructing houses on the forest land here.
Cases have been registered against tribals and tribals leaders by forest officials at Siddapura police station for encroaching reserve forest land and threatening the forest officials on duty.
It is said that the forest officials are pulling up their socks to raze the huts which have been recently built and since there are all chances of the situation turning tense security has been beefed up in the region.
A total of 80 civil police and 40 forest officials are camping at the spot.
The forest officials say that about six-months-ago, hundreds of people had ventured into forest land and built make-shift houses, which the forest department pulled down, leading to an intense protest by the Diddalli tribals, which made state-level headlines.
While the decision on Diddalli has been hanging in limbo, Revenue Minister had visited Kodagu recently, following an assurance from the CM to solve the crisis. The Revenue Minister had said that the government was committed to help the Diddalli tribals by re-locating them to a different place, but the trials have paid no heed to the same and have ventured into building houses in the same land, showing their adamancy.
Standing by their demand that the they should be given houses in Diddalli and not anywhere else, the tribals have built 60 huts so far, sending a strong message to the forest department that they are not ready to leave the land.
Though Madikeri DySP Chabbi, Virajpet Range Deputy Conservator of Forest Mariya Krishnaraj, ACF Sripathi and others have tried their level best to convince the tribals to relax their stand and move out of Diddalli, there seems to be no change in attitude of the tribals.
