Andhra Pradesh| Whose Polavaram is it anyway?

Forest tribes in the Godavari region, displaced from their habitations by an irrigation-electricity project, stare at a future away from their cultural moorings along the river. All they ask for are sufficient funds for survival, finds T. Appala Naidu

On June 12, Vetla Mutyala Reddi, 36, from the Konda Reddi tribe, put forward his charter of 10 demands to the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. In the four minutes granted, he boldly read the demands out. He asked for adequate compensation for his tribe notified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Describing what he believes is a combination of injustice and fate, he talked about the consequences of the Polavaram irrigation project being built across the mighty Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh.

Ms. Murmu, herself a Scheduled Tribe, listened intently to him.

Mutyala Reddi represented the Konda Reddi tribe of Andhra Pradesh at the PVTG Summit hosted by the President to interact with India’s 75 PVTG representatives from across India. Selected by the State government, Mutyala Reddi got out of his traditional loin cloth and donned trousers and a shirt for the event.

The Polavaram irrigation project is a Centre-funded project that touches A.P., Odisha, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh, with A.P. bearing 90% of its brunt. The project cuts through the undivided East and West Godavari districts in the State.

In the project submergence area lie 371 habitations. Of these, 123, with 21,000 families, inhabited mainly by Konda Reddis and Koyas (another tribe in the area), are being rehabilitated in the first phase of the Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) package scheduled to be completed by August. Of these, 8,800 families are yet to be relocated, in a process that began in 2015.

Konda Reddis have been living on the banks of the Godavari, in the green hills that abut the river. Here, the mist moves in and out of the valley, and the air smells of chlorophyll. Culturally, the tribe is tied to River Godavari, which they regard as the mother goddess, and also give it a patriarchal status.

“Our life cannot be separated from the sacred river. From birth and wedding to death, every ritual is connected with the river,” says Mutyala Reddi. In some rituals, soil and sand are collected from the river to perform puja to tribal deities.