With 'nooses' around their necks, a few tribal women farmers in Andhra Pradesh's Anakapalli district on Friday, 8 April, staged a protest against purported plans to hand over their cashew plantations to a mining company.
A video of the women's symbolic protest at Uravakonda in Madugula mandal has gone viral on social media.
The women are seen standing under a tree with 'nooses' around their necks, and the other end of the long cloth is tied to the tree branches.
Worried about losing their livelihood, the women said if their cashew plantations were destroyed, they would have no option but to end their lives. "They are pushing us towards death," said one of the women.
According to them, the land they cultivate is being taken away forcibly and allotted to a granite company.
The women alleged that some people had given their lands to the company in exchange for some money. The women claimed that they were the real owners of the land, but they didn't have papers to prove it.
They said the government had allotted them the land and that they had been cultivating it for several years.
They also alleged that Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) had threatened to file cases against them if they obstructed the mining company. Alleging that the MRO and other officials were acting as agents of a mining company, the women demanded a probe by the joint collector.
The mining company is laying roads through the lands being cultivated by these tribal women. The protesters said that the construction of roads would destroy the plantations and thus deprive them of their livelihood.
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