Dhenkanal: Protesting the chopping of trees to set up a beer factory at Jhinkargadi forest, hundreds of women of Balarampur village under Sadar block in the district scuffled with the police Saturday.
The women guarded the trees by wrapping their arms around even as the cops assaulted them and forcibly tried to remove them. The incident spread tension in the area as the villagers, mostly women, did not allow the police to cut down the trees.
The incident took place when the district administration began the process of tree felling to acquire land for the proposed liquor. Though police forces were deployed at the site, the villagers scuffled with the district officials and cops in a bid to stop the tree cutting process.
The villagers are holding the protest to save the Jhinkargadi forest that they have been nurturing for decades.
“The forest is our life,” said one woman as she clasped a sal tree, along with another woman from her village. They were there to protect it from being cut for the construction of the beverage factory.
In view of the palpable tension in the region, multiple platoons of police were deployed at the site before the tree cutting process began.
Notably, the state government began to look for large tracts of ‘encumbrance-free’ land to create a land bank for industrial projects a few years ago.
Following the move, the forest patch protected by the Balarampur villagers was identified by the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO), the nodal agency for facilitating land for industries.
The district administration started the process of changing the land’s classification following which the villagers raised objections, fearing for the forest they have nurtured for decades.
However, the administration said since Balarampur village possessed more than the minimum requirement of five per cent of the common land, any surplus land could be diverted for other purposes.
Saturday morning, police and District Collector visited the site for acquisition of land. After getting information, hundreds of men and women of the village rushed to the spot holding sticks to protest and had a face-off with the cops.
Later, the police detained 11 villagers from the spot to disperse the mob.
Protesting the same cause, a few days back, the villagers, particularly women, were seen guarding the trees inside the forest bringing alive memories of the Chipko movement of the 1970s.
As per reports, the proposed beer factory is expected to come up on 600 acres of forest land. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the project through video conferencing November 3.
Though the construction work was scheduled to begin November 8, it had to be stopped because of the protests. Sources said the forest houses around 958 big trees of various species.
