Tiruppur MP K. Subbarayan (right) submitted a petition to Collector S. Kandasamy to take steps to establish an alternate road to Vilankombai forest settlement at the Collectorate in Erode in Tamil Nadu on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement.
Tiruppur MP K. Subbarayan has urged District Collector S. Kandasamy to take steps to establish an alternate road to Vilankombai forest settlement under the provisions of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, to ensure permanent connectivity for the tribal residents of the area.
Mr. Subbarayan, who visited the Vilankombai forest village, part of Kongarpalayam Panchayat in Gobichettipalayam taluk, on Wednesday (October 22, 2025), said the settlement had been cut off for a week due to flash floods in forest streams. The floods washed away low-level bridges built by the Forest Department, disrupting transport, food supply, education, and healthcare.
“There are about 40 Urali tribal families and 30 school-going children in Vilankombai. They are unable to reach Vinoba Nagar, the nearest accessible settlement, as the 7-km forest road has become impassable,” Mr. Subbarayan mentioned in his memorandum to the Collector. He added that this isolation recurs every monsoon, making the existing route unreliable and costly to maintain. “Repeated reconstruction of bridges has not helped, as they cannot withstand seasonal floods,” he said.
As a permanent solution, he suggested improving the Kavalur–Pellathur road, a shorter 4-km route to Vinoba Nagar. He noted that under Section 3(2) of the FRA, up to 2.5 acres of forest land could be reclassified and developed through the Rural Development Department without environmental or wildlife clearances.
He urged the administration to reclassify and upgrade the Kavalur–Pellathur road to ensure uninterrupted access for Vilankombai residents. A report, “Monsoon rain leaves 60 tribal families stranded,” appeared in The Hindu dated October 23, 2025.
Published – October 23, 2025 07:58 pm IST
