The video of an incident in Helang where police tried to grab the bundles of fodder collected by village women is doing rounds in social media exposing Chamoli District administration, police and the Uttarakhand state government’s attempt to grab village forest land in favour of a construction company. Many organizations in the state have unanimously raised the call for 'Helang Chalo' on 24 July and have started efforts across the state for the success of this movement.
It is noteworthy that the state government has used the police and paramilitary forces to unsuccessfully suppress the agitating women of Helang panchayat fighting to defend their right over the common land and forest of their village, but the attempts of repressing people resulting in more people's protests emerging stronger.
On 15 July when a woman from the village, Mandodari Devi, was returning with a bundle of grass-fodder tied to her back, she saw that trees had been cut on this land. When she protested, CISF and police personnel present there misbehaved with her and snatched away the bundle of grass on her back. Someone took a video of this which went viral. After this incident three women and one man were arrested. With them, a 2 year old child was also taken and made to sit in a government vehicle for one and a half hours after which they were taken to Joshimath Thana. They were kept there 6 hours and then released on personal bond.
The Tehri Hydro Power Development Corporation (THDC) is building a hydro power project in the Helang area. The project is called Vishnugad Pipalkoti Hydro Electric Project. Quite a lot of land in Helang village has already been acquired for various works related to this project. At present the villagers have just a small piece of forest land adjacent to the River Alaknanda. Families in the village use this portion of the forest to get fodder for their cattle. The HCC Company that is blasting a tunnel for THDC needed a dumping zone to dump debris. They resorted to a ploy for this. In collaboration with the Gram Pradhan and the Van Panchayat Sarpanch a resolution was prepared by the Gram Sabha and THDC was requested to build a sports ground for the village.
This so-called 'unanimously passed resolution' was acted upon with great speed. It was decided that the HCC Company should dump its tunnel-debris on the small portion of Gauchar-Panghat sloping land left to the villagers adjacent to the Alaknanda, and when the ground was levelled the sports ground would be constructed there.
CPIML leader in Joshimath Atul Sati inspected this land. According to him, it is not possible to level this slope of land several meters deep. This will be a dumping ground only in name. The people's grass and trees will be buried and after all the debris will go into the Alaknanda. He also says that the ploy of a sports ground was used earlier also for dumping the debris generated by the construction of the All-Weather Road, but the sports ground was never built. Most people in the village are opposing the turning of this land into a dumping ground in the name of building a sports ground.
The people are angry at the way they have been cheated through land laws and the way in which rich businessmen are buying the hills in the state after the Land Act Amendment 2018, and were feeling the necessity to raise their voice collectively.
CPIML Uttarakhand Secretary Raja Bahuguna said in a statement that the Helang valley episode clearly appears to be intended for the protection of the interests of the THDC Company and its contractors. The THDC wishes to capture this piece of land and therefore wanted to cut down the trees on that land. This was opposed by the local women. Frustrated, the company has used the local administration to persecute the rural women. The local women are having to face vendetta in the form of this criminal action in return for protecting the trees in their neighbourhood. The accountability for this falls directly on the District Magistrate. He demanded from the state government to immediately remove the DM and conduct a judicial probe so that strict punishment is accorded to the persons guilty of this criminal act against the local women.
The Chamoli police and district administration tried to whitewash the entire incident through some videos and twitter posts and prove the victim woman to be a liar, but when they saw that these attempts only served to further incense the people the State Women's Commission gave orders to the Chamoli DM to conduct an enquiry into the incident. But this order is only a white-washing attempt according to Indresh Maikhuri, CPIML Garhwal incharge, because the DM himself is one of the parties in the matter. He has already tried to prove the woman a liar. Therefore enquiry will only be a farce. Seeing the situation escalate, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami himself intervened and directed the Garhwal Commissioner to conduct the enquiry. Indresh Maikhuri has also written to Child Rights Protection commission to intervene and take action because a child was being kept in custody for hours by the police.
The people have no confidence in the order by the Chief Minister either. They feel it is a means of putting the entire matter in cold storage. They remember many past instances where enquiry committees were constituted but the enquiry never got completed. A major such instance was the incident of brutal lathi charge on protesters demanding a road in Gairsain (announced as the summer capital of the state). The fate of this enquiry also be like that of past enquiries!
Meanwhile, District and Tehsil level protests against this incident were organized across the state on 19 and 20 July and memorandums were submitted to the Chief Minister through the concerned officials. Carrying the agitation forward, CPIML and many democratic organisations across the state have given the call for Helang Chalo on 24 July. The Nainital Bar Association also expressed anger at the Helang incident and support for the agitation to protest against the incident in a meeting of lawyers.
