Under a weather-beaten, tattered sheet pitched near the gate of the Wayanad district collectorate, K K James has spent the last 11 years on a silent, indefinite protest — one he inherited from the previous generation.
James is the latest member of the Kanjirathinal family to carry forward a battle spanning more than five decades to reclaim 12 acres of land they say they own but which was vested with the Forest Department. Those years have been marked by petitions, review petitions, conflicting court rulings, unfulfilled government promises and official reports supporting the family’s claim.
His father-in-law, George, who began the fight to reclaim the family’s home and farmland built through years of toil, died in 2013. The responsibility then fell on James, 60, who began an indefinite sit-in on August 15, 2015. His protest has outlived governments and countless setbacks.
Kerala Forest Minister Shibu Baby John, who visited Wayanad on Monday, said the government believed the family deserved justice and had directed Forest officials to urgently suggest a lasting solution to a dispute pending for nearly five decades.
Last week, Agriculture Minister T Siddique, the MLA from Kalpetta in Wayanad, also visited James and assured him of government intervention.
“There is no hope left in our lives. We only want our property returned. After being evicted from our house in 2008, we were thrown onto the streets. My in-laws died in old-age homes. I could not ensure an education for my twin sons, who are now 23,” James said.
The family’s troubles began in 1977 when the Forest Department laid claim to farmland at Thondernadu village that brothers George and Jose had purchased in 1967. Invoking the Kerala Private Forests (Vesting and Assignment) Act, 1971, the department staked claim for the land, where the family had built a house, cultivated crops and paid land tax for years.
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Long legal battle
George first approached the Forest Tribunal, which in 1978 ruled that the property was not private forest vested with the government. The government challenged the order, and in 1982 the High Court set aside the tribunal’s verdict and remanded the matter for a fresh hearing.
Following site inspections, the tribunal held that the family was entitled to only 75 cents of land. George challenged the order in the High Court, but the petition was dismissed in 1991. He later sought restoration of possession from the Forest Department and, when that failed, approached the High Court again in 1995 seeking the benefit of a land assignment policy for cultivators who had occupied forest land before 1977.
The government opposed the plea, saying it was already in possession of 11.25 acres of the disputed land. The High Court directed the family to seek relief from the government under the assignment policy. However, since the family maintained that it owned the land, it did not fall within the category of occupants covered by the scheme. An appeal before a division bench also failed.
The government subsequently ruled that the family was not in possession of the disputed land. That decision, too, was challenged unsuccessfully. The High Court also questioned the authenticity of a copy of the Forest Tribunal judgment produced by George and directed the government to initiate action against him, a decision later upheld by a division bench.
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In 2007, the CPI(M)-led government decided to assign six acres each to George and Jose and directed the district collector to accept land tax from them. But in 2008, after an NGO, One Earth One Life, challenged the decision, the High Court quashed the government order. The family was evicted from the property that year, though George continued pursuing legal remedies until his death.
From courts to government
After George’s death, James was impleaded in the case pending before the High Court.
By 2015, the family’s struggle had drawn wider public attention after James began his indefinite sit-in demanding government intervention.
The CPI(M)-led government under Pinarayi Vijayan, which came to power in 2016, also backed the family’s claim. In 2017, it approached the High Court seeking correction of the Forest Tribunal’s 1985 order that had deprived the family of the land, but the plea was rejected.
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“After 2014, I filed five review petitions — four in the High Court and one in the Supreme Court. Because of the delay, I had to withdraw the Supreme Court petition. The last review petition in the High Court was in 2019. When that also yielded nothing, I withdrew it,” James said.
In 2019, a committee of the Kerala Legislative Assembly heard officials from the Revenue, Survey and Forest departments. While the Revenue and Survey departments supported the family’s claim, saying the land belonged to them, the Forest Department reiterated its stand.
That year, the Mananthavady sub-collector also reported to the Assembly panel that the land had never belonged to the Forest Department and that the family had not encroached upon it.
“My land is not even adjacent to forest land. The neighbouring properties are still agricultural land, and the nearest forest is about 2 km away. How can only my land remain vested with the Forest Department?” James said.
Despite these favourable reports, the dispute remains unresolved.
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The latest official recommendation came in May 2025, when Wayanad District Collector D R Meghasree proposed appointing a judicial commission so that a final decision could be taken based on its findings. More than a year later, however, no such commission has been constituted.