“It’s a poor propaganda stunt. The land they reclaimed today is nothing but virgin forest with no plantation at all, and it was clearly vested with the Forest department way back in 1971. We have nothing to do with it,” said T Damu, advisor to the Tata group. Damu said there was no reason to move the courts yet “but we consider the threat to take away our legally leased land if we go to court as an insult to democratic values.”

K Sureshkumar, head of the Munnar task force, maintained that the land was under the control of the Tatas. “The issue is not whether or not this is Forest department land. Our findings indicate that this land was in the company’s control. Why else did they put up their board there?” he asked, referring to the company board that the CM got removed.

According to Damu, the board in question had always been there, well before the Forest department’s takeover of the land decades ago. “Our men merely repainted the board while they were touching up all boards,” he said.

The Tatas possess land in Munnar on the strength of an original lease agreement over a century old, passed down to it. The land was originally part of the 588 sq km in Munnar that a local chieftain leased to a British lawyer, John D Munro, in 1877. Two years later, the lawyer passed it on to a British plantation company Finley and Moore. The Tatas entered the deal in 1964, setting up Tata Finley Ltd. Finley withdrew in 1983, and the Tatas became the sole lessees.

... contd.