By: Matters India Reporter
Kozhikode, July 26, 2020: Police in Kerala have registered a case against Bishop Remigiose Inchananiyil of Thamarassery for breaking coronavirus restrictions.
The Syro-Malabar prelate is among 40 people charged by the police for participating in a protest at the Forest Range Office in Thamarassery, near Kozhikode, a town in northern Kerala.
A collective of 15 farmer organizations under the banner of the Karshika Purogamana Samiti (KPS, Forum for the advancement of agriculture) staged a fast at Sulthan Bathery on June 25, raising a series of demands including effective steps to tackle the increasing wildlife attacks in the district.
Bishop Inchananiyil, who opened the protest, said that wildlife attacks had increased considerably in Kerala over the past decade, especially in hilly areas such as Wayanad.
Though a tribal youth was mauled to death by a tiger at Pulpally in Wayanad, the Forest department officials could not capture the animal, the bishop said. He said that successive governments in Kerala had not taken any steps to address the issue. The collective protest by the farming community against the escalating wildlife attacks was the need of the hour, he added.
The protesters demanded that the administration capture the man-eater, adopt scientific steps to divide forest areas and human habitations, amend Forest Acts, erect of hanging fences on the fringes of forests to curb man-animal conflicts, and increase the compensation for crop losses suffered in wildlife raids.
Kerala has strict norms to contain the coronavirus pandemic such as social distancing and gathering of more than five people at one place.
The southern Indian state recorded the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on July 25 with Kozhikode district recording 110 new cases. It came second on the list of most number of cases in the state, after Thiruvananthapuram. Eighty-eight people contracted the disease through local transmission.