India, Sept. 3 -- The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has launched a sharp attack on the Tamil Nadu Government and forest bureaucracy over ongoing attempts to evict traditional forest dwellers from over 5,072 hectares of land in the Meghamalai-Varusanadu areas of Theni district. The peasant body termed the action a "systemic, deliberate violation of the law" that severely mutilates the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in both letter and spirit.

According to the farmers' union, around 25,000 people - mostly marginal peasants, Adivasis, Dalits, and Most Backward Classes spread across nine village panchayats - are currently facing eviction in the terrain, which forms part of the Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve (ABR). AIKS alleged that the State Forest ...