Sat Nov 02 22:00:00 UTC 2024: ## Polavaram Project Leaves Displaced Tribes Without Burial Grounds, Leaving Behind a Legacy of Sorrow and Uncertainty
**Kondrukota, Andhra Pradesh, November 3, 2024** – The Polavaram irrigation project, a national undertaking designed to bring prosperity to Andhra Pradesh, has left a trail of sorrow and uncertainty for the displaced tribal communities. The families, uprooted from their ancestral villages in the Godavari Valley, find themselves stranded in resettlement and rehabilitation colonies (R&R) without a basic necessity: designated burial grounds.
The plight of the Koya and Konda Reddi tribes, whose lives were intertwined with the Godavari River and the Papikonda National Park, is particularly poignant. Forced to abandon their homes and traditions, they are now grappling with the heartbreak of performing last rites in unfamiliar locations. The families are left with no choice but to bury their loved ones on private lands, on the banks of irrigation canals, or travel long distances to reach common cemeteries.
“We sacrificed our culture, the sacred Godavari, and the forest only to lead a miserable life in the R&R Colonies,” laments Pydaa Nagaraju, the Sarpanch of Kondrukota Panchayat. “The authorities created a situation where we cannot return to our forest and river.”
Despite the 2013 Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR Act) guaranteeing basic entitlements for displaced families, including burial grounds, the R&R authorities have failed to provide this essential service. Numerous representations and grievances have been submitted by the displaced communities, but to no avail.
The lack of a designated burial ground has not only posed practical challenges but has also caused deep emotional distress. Poonem Srinivas, a young Koya man, buried his mother on his family land, a decision that left him grappling with grief and the cultural incongruity of his actions.
“The lack of a designated burial ground here has become a challenge for us,” states Medenkela Philemon, a village elder. “This is the state of families of all tribes and non-tribes who have been rehabilitated from their ancestral villages in the Godavari Valley for the Polavaram irrigation project.”
While the R&R authorities are acknowledging the need for burial grounds, the progress in providing this facility remains sluggish.
The Polavaram project, which has displaced thousands of families, is a stark reminder of the complex social and environmental consequences that can arise from large-scale development projects. As the project marches forward, the urgent need to address the basic human needs of the displaced communities and ensure their well-being cannot be ignored.
First Piper 