A 'grandmother', who waged a lone battle against Thiruvananthapuram's mining lobby, dies at 90

Darly, an elderly woman who became a symbol of resistance for waging a lone battle against the land mining mafia at Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram, has died at 90.

Fondly called Darly Ammoomma (grandmother), she died at a care home of the district panchayat at Andoorkonam here on Wednesday. She had lived alone for years after her husband died. The couple did not have children.

For decades Darly held on to her unplastered abode on 15 cents of ancestral property at Olathani on the banks of Neyyar River even as the mining lobby took hold of the adjacent properties with its scare tactics.

According to earlier reports, at least 15 properties, including those of Darly's relatives were bought by the lobby while she held on to hers.

Her stubbornness in the face of hostility from the mafia is fabled. Her modest property stood like an islet surrounded by the exposed river bank dug deep for its mineral.

At one time, two policemen were posted at the site for her protection. For Darly to get to her property, a bridge made of planks was arranged after the mining lobby dug trenches around her property.

Even revenue officials attempted to convince her to move, for her safety, but in vain. "I don't want to hear all that. Why should I surrender my land and water," Darly reportedly told them.

In 2013, she briefly gave in, not to the lobby, but to authorities who forcibly removed her from her precarious piece of land as the water rose in the Neyyar following heavy rains. But Darly returned when the waters receded.

Five years later when the water rose again, police and rescue personnel knocked on her door, a country boat waiting to take her to safety.

Darly resisted, but they managed to convince her. She was initially accommodated at her sister's residence at Paraniyam and by 2021 taken to the care home, where she lived her remaining years. The mining lobby had not dared to take what she owned, not at least on her watch.