Kannur: On May 2, Minister for Scheduled Tribes Development K Radhakrishnan threatened to sack government officials who 'pick-pocket' from common people.

"It is the responsibility of government officials to serve the people and they are paid for it. Keeping people waiting by ignoring their complaints for a long time is a crime," he said.

Radhakrishnan was speaking after inaugurating an adalat -- 'Karuthal-Kaithangu' (Care and Helping Hand) -- a complaint redressal forum organised as part of the second LDF government's second anniversary.

The double irony in the minister's speech was not lost on the workers of Aralam Farming Corporation. Neither do they have money in their pockets nor their complaints are being heard by the minister.

For the past 36 days, 380 casual and regular workers of the Aralam Farm -- pushed to the brink by marauding elephants and menacing monkeys entering the farm -- are staging a  protest demanding the payment of their wages and salaries. The government-owned company, under the administrative control of Radhakrishnan's department, has not paid them salaries and wages for the past six months. It stopped depositing provident fund contributions to EPFO eight months ago.

Of the 380 workers, 274 belong to Scheduled Tribes and all of them have been pushed into poverty, said P K Ramachandran, a security guard of Aralam Farm and secretary of the CPM's Aralam Local Committee.

Workers affiliated with all political parties are part of the protest. "Initially, we were on a relay protest with a new set of workers taking over the strike every day. But the company ignored the protest," said Antony Jacob, a clerk, and leader of Congress-affiliated trade union INTUC.

On May 2, the day minister Radhakrishnan took part in the adalat, Kannur collector S Chandrasekhar, who is also the chairman of Aralam Farming Corporation, called the protesters for talks at the Collectorate. "We thought he was calling us to find a solution," said Jacob. But no, he called the workers to urge them not to picket farm offices from May 3. Since there was no response from the government and the corporation, the workers started picketing the agriculture offices in the seven blocks of Aralam Farm. 

Director of Scheduled Tribes Development Department Vinay Goyal, who is also a director of Aralam Farming Corporation, was not available for comment when contacted by Onmanorama. The Joint Director in charge P Vanidas said the directorate could do little without the government taking a decision.

On April 11, eight days after the protest began at Aralam Farm, the workers met Minister Radhakrishnan and submitted a petition at Keezhpally in Aralam grama panchayat. "He said he would take up the matter but after a month; he did not even call us for talks. neither has he taken steps to disburse our salaries and wages," said Jacob.

The company will have to raise at least Rs 6 crore immediately to settle the wage bills and other debt, said CITU leader Ramachandran.

Aralam Farm, sinking in debt 
Aralam Farm spread over 3,500 acres was once one of the biggest coconut producers in Kerala. Today, it is sinking in debt, after being relentlessly raided by elephants and monkeys since 2017, and mismanaged by bureaucrats, the workers said. 

The farm has an operational cost of Rs 12 crore, including Rs 8.4 crore to pay wages, every year, according to the workers. "But it is generating only Rs 10 lakh in a year. The money is coming mostly from the rubber and nursery. Everything else has been destroyed by elephants," said Jacob, a farm office clerk.

The company is bleeding but that did not stop the bureaucrats from starting a cow farm and a goat farm at Aralam.

The cow farm with 20 cows has an operational cost of Rs 1 lakh for cattle feeds and wages for six workers every month, said Jacob. "But it gets only Rs 30,000 by selling milk," he said.

The goat farm started with 50 goats. After a year, it has around 100 goats because there are no buyers. "The company advertised it will sell the goats for Rs 300/ kg. No one turned up," he said. The feed and wage cost per month for the goat farm comes to Rs 25,000. 

Aralam was originally set up by the Union Government in 1970 with the help of the erstwhile Soviet Union. 

Later, the state government's Scheduled Tribe Development Department took over the farm to distribute 50% of the land to tribespeople and the rest to be run as farms for the welfare of tribespeople.

The farm was divided into 14 blocks, six blocks for tribe settlement and seven blocks for the farm, and one for central nursery. 

Relentless raiding by elephants and monkeys has destroyed almost the whole arecanut and cocoa plantations, said Jacob.

Before 2017, the farm used to produce 25 lakh to 30 lakh coconuts every year. "Now we hardly harvest 20,000 coconuts in a year," he said.

Elephants have felled 15,600 of the 40,000 coconut trees. "In my block, with 5,000 coconut trees, we used to get 5 lakh coconuts. Last season we got only 10,000. Similarly, we got 40 tonnes of cocoa from Block 5 last year. This year we got zero," he said.

The farm used to earn Rs 2 crore from cashewnut. The revenue from cashew has fallen to Rs 75,000, he said. "The elephants bring down the trees to eat the cashew apples," he said.

The farm is frequented by around 60 to 80 elephants. They have snuffed out the lives of 14 persons in nine years. Raghu (43) was the last person to be killed by an elephant on March 17.

Workers and residents said these lives could have been saved had the government constructed a 13-km elephant-proof concrete wall, which is now a decade-old demand.

Residents filed a public interest litigation in the high court, which took five years to dispose of the case. It asked the government to build the wall in 18 months. During the five years, four lives were lost, said Iritty Block Panchayat president K Velayudan, a former employee of the farm.

On the direction of the court, the government sanctioned Rs 22 crore for the project and transferred Rs 11 crore to the PWD. The project got delayed because the chief secretary said hanging a solar fence was ideal for Aralam. The obstruction led to more deaths on the farm.

Now, the PWD floated the tender for the wall. "By the time the wall is built, there will be no Aralam Farm," said Jacob.

Meanwhile, the government lined up another second-anniversary 'Karuthal and Kaithangu' Adalat at Taliparamba on Saturday (May 6). Minister for Agriculture P Prasad and Aralam Farming Corporation managing director Meghashree D R, who is also the District Development Commissioner, were busy hearing out the grievances of the people. Around 60km from the adalat, the workers of Aralam Farm picketed the farm office in Block 8, uncared for and ignored.