Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

Legal Identity and Natural Resource Management 87
to this, there are no tribal groups in Cuddalore district. The present
list for Tamil Nadu consists of 36 tribal groups. Even though Irulas are
included as one of these groups, their presence in Cuddalore district is not
recorded. Consequently, in the official view, the community is not entitled
to a community certificate legitimising their status as a tribal group and
entitling them to the special provisions of the central and Tamil Nadu
governments. The Irulas had no official ‘place’ in the district due to the
lack of any serious efforts to alter the list and also due to their own nomadic
life. The officials were, therefore, hesitant or blatantly refused to deal with
the issue. Even the 1991 Census has no record of Irulas in the district,
although for the last two decades the Irulas have been requesting members
of local bodies, visiting government officials and politicians to recognise
their status as a tribal group.
COASTAL WETLANDS MANAGEMENT AND
LEGITIMACY OF TRIBAL IDENTITY
The Pichavaram mangrove wetland on the southeast coast of India occupies
an area of 1,357 hectares, bordering the Vellar estuary in the north
and the Coleroon estuary to the south of Cuddalore district. The Vellar-
Coleroon estuarine complex comprises the Killai backwater and
Pichavaram mangroves. The renewable natural resources in the Pichavaram
mangrove wetland can be divided into two major categories: (a) aquatic
resources; and (b) forest resources. The local communities use forest
resources mainly for grazing and fuel wood collection, which has now
been declared illegal. About 30 species of prawns, crabs and molluscs,
and 200 species of commercially important fish have been harvested from
the Pichavaram mangrove ecosystem.
MGR Nagar is the first permanent Irula settlement and falls within the
Killai panchayat. It was established during the mid-1970s. When the then
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had declared an Emergency in the country
in 1975, a development programme known as the ‘20 point programme’
had been launched. One of the 20 points was for the release of bonded
labour. This enabled the Irulas in the region to be released from the local
landlords under whose control they had been working for generations as
virtual bonded labourers. As a part of the programme, the government