A large group of people living in villages deep inside the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary are set for an occupy stir which will see them forcefully occupy bungalows, buildings and revenue land under the forest department in the district in protest against government delay in implementing the relocation package promised to them long ago. The villagers, comprising around 2,600 tribal and nontribal families from 110 settlements situated deep within the WWS, had voluntarily expressed their willingness to move out of the forest three years back. The unique project, if implemented, could have added over 1500 acres to the sanctuary, making it one of the largest voluntary relocation programmes in the country. The villagers now say that they are being punished for responding favourably to the department’s relocation drive. Mainly subsistence farmers, they allege that the delay in resettlement has thrown their life completely out of gear. So far, only 55 families have been resettled under the programme. The rest of the villagers, who have signed an undertaking to relinquish their ancestral land, have no other option but to occupy properties of the forest department. “We have been deceived and are now completely trapped inside the deep forest. The government has abandoned us ever since we expressed our willingness to move out the sanctuary to uphold the green cause. They have stopped implementing development programmes here, as the area will be reconverted to forest land. Poverty, hunger and frequent man-animal conflicts plague our villages, which are cut off from the outside world,” Kuruchiad Raghavan, president of the association formed by families said. According to Raghavan, the occupy stir is set to commence any day after March 31. However, he added that the stir would not be violent like the firestorm protest in the district which opposed conservation initiatives of the department. “We will uphold our love of forest and wildlife and will not turn against forests or the forest department. We will stick to our green credentials even during the stir,” he added. The Kerala high court had directed the government to devise a scheme for the resettlement of ‘people trapped inside the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary’.