More than 300 people from tribal communities, including women, who are living in the foothills of Kolli Hills staged a demonstration on the premises of the Forest Range Office in Rasipuram on Thursday urging the government and the forest department to properly implement the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (for Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers). In the demonstration that was organised by the Tamil Nadu Malaival Makkal Sangam, they also condemned the alleged harassment by forest department personnel. According to them, proper implementation of the Act will save persons from tribal communities who are living near the forest areas for centuries from the alleged harassment of department staff. “Over the last six months we are continuously harassed by the department staff. They seize our cattle when we took them for grazing in forest areas near our villages and made us pay an exorbitant fine of up to Rs. 15,000 to release them. We are not given a receipt for the same,” the tribal villagers alleged and gave a list of affected persons and the amount they paid to the forest department personnel. Most of the demonstrators were people from Pudumavaru, Palayamavaru, Kumbakutaai, Salakadu and Thumbalpatti tribal villages in Perapancholai panchayat, who claimed to be the worst-hit by the harassment. District vice-president of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayegal Sangam S. Kandasamy, who led the demonstration, told The Hindu that more than 3,000 people from about 500 families in Perapancholai panchayat were the worst-affected. “Villagers living in Moolakurichi, Oonthangal, Mulkurichi, Karkudalpatti and Naraikinaru panchayats near the forest areas at the foothills of Kolli Hills face similar problems,” he added. He said that the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, permits tribal villagers living near the forests to graze cattle and gather herbs and minor millets from forest areas for their domestic use and sell them for a livelihood. “It also facilitates collection of firewood,” he said. The villagers also urged the government to issue patta to them for the forest lands where they have been cultivating millets. Earlier, they went on a procession from the old bus stand to the Forest Range Office, before staging the demonstration. Rasipuram Ranger C. Mathialagan said that the Act does not give them permission to rear goats in forest lands. Denying allegations that the staff fleeced villagers, he said that the fine was properly collected and that there was delay in giving them a receipt for the same. “The Act permits them to enjoy the benefits of forest land if they are residing there for three generations or more. They cannot get a patta for those lands,” he said.