Labelled Maoists, those who resist the Kudremukh National Park evictions can only write letters.

Sleeping in the midst of sprawling greenery, Bhagya and Gurumurthy Hagalaganchi’s house in Sringeri, Karnataka, is a flurry of activity. Bhagya Hagalaganchi’s letters to the editor of Prajavani, a leading Kannada newspaper, has earned her recognition across the state. She is a public writer and an activist. “We moved here in 1993. Since a few months now, police have been asking our friends why they come home and talk to us,” says Gurumurthy. “They tell them we are Maoist supporters.Friends we have known for more than 10 years now look at us with fear and suspicion.”

Since 1998, when the Karnataka government first announced evictions as part of the formation of the Kudremukh National Park, the Hagalganchis have been at the forefront of protests. As founding members of the Kudremukh Rashtriya Udhyana Virodhi Okkutta (Coalition Against Kudremukh National Park), they have consistently protested against the eviction and harassment of Adivasis by the Forest Department. Their house has seen frenzied activity as adivasis from the effected villages, local farmers, and environmental and social activists met to discuss and plan strategies for fighting against the National Park and a determined State. Since 2003, when Maoists started reacting against the National Park formation, the State has responded with violence: fake encounters, arrests on false charges, constant questioning, harassment of Adivasis and frequent searches of their homes.

Adivasis, branded Maoists, have been murdered by the state’s Anti-Naxal Force. On July 10, 2007 in Hatyadka, Mensinhadya, four people were shot dead in their homes, among them the secretary of the Okkutta. The Maoists killed two people they termed as police informers and enemies of the “revolution”. Citing Maoist presence, the State has throttled the voices of those who protest within constitutional boundaries — especially those of the Okkutta and the Hagalaganchis. “Since 1998, the Okkutta has organised rallies, held public meetings, met ministers, submitted memorandums, gheraoed officials demanding answers. There’s been not a single response from the government through all these years.

Not even a recognition that the Okkutta exists,” says an angry Bhagya. The first time the government took cognisance of the problem in the region was following the Idu encounter on November 17, 2003, when two Maoists — Parvathi and Hajima — were gunned down. In the aftermath of the media blitz and the clamour of civil society groups, the government announced that forceful eviction of the Adivasis from the National Park notified area would no longer take place. When Gurumurthy’s brother Ravi was first arrested in 2004 (following yet another encounter between the police and the Maoists) Bhagya wrote her first letter to Prajavani. Published in November 2004, the letter provided a first-hand narrative of the incidents leading up to Ravi’s arrest and an account of the Barkhana encounter, in which Ravi was named an accused. “Nobody was listening to us — not the media, not the government, nor the civil society groups. For us, Ravi’s arrest signified the increasing attempt by the government to silence the Okkutta and our voices of protest.The Maoist presence became a standing excuse to crush peoples’ movements,” says Bhagya. Bhagya’s letters — her sole weapon — have appeared regularly in Prajavani, claiming a distinct space within the “Letters” section. When the police turned up at Bhagya’s women’s group meeting, posing as officials from the Women and Child Welfare Department, another letter appeared.

Bhagya condemns the half-hearted relief and rehabilitation programmes of the government for the project-affected families. In 2003, Rs 60 crore was announced as relief. Till 2006, not a rupee was spent but the relief package was increased to Rs 160 crore. The final announcement cut the package to just Rs 24 crore Not a single rupee has been released to date. Bhagya’s letters record the increasing police oppression of the Adivasis; the government’s refusal to permit rallies; the murder of the Okkutta’s general secretary in a fake encounter. With the State closing down democratic spaces, her letters offer the world the only insight into a brutal reality.

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