Quarry ring-fences family of 11 on farmland

SURROUNDED by deep quarries and stone crushers, a lone patch of green now feels like a prison. A family of 11, including four school-going children and an elderly woman, has been stuck for the past one week in the isolated land where they have farmed and lived for decades in Nalmukkal village, around 15 km from Tindivanam, after a quarry owner blocked all access routes by erecting fences as part of an alleged tactic to pressurise them into selling their property.

- BAGALAVAN PERIER B @Villupuram

The seven-acre plot owned by brothers E Selvam (47) and E Ravichandran (51) is located a kilometre from the main village where around 700 families live. The quarry owner, K Paramasivam, has bought all adjacent parcels of land, including a few leased earlier by the brothers for cultivation, by paying prices disproportionately higher than the market value.

Last week, he fenced off a mud road — the family's last remaining access to the outside world — effectively marooning them.

"He has quarried most of the land to the maximum extent possible, some to depths beyond 300 feet. Now he wants our land too, since stones are found just 10 feet below the surface. But we are firm not to sell since this was bought by our father 60 years ago and it has fed us ever since," said Ravichandran.