Kalpetta: Eleven years, countless representations and a tent outside the collectorate, yet the Kanjirathinal family’s fight to reclaim farmland taken over by the Forest Department drags on.

On Saturday, the protest tent outside the district collectorate here marked 11 years of a battle that has offered little respite to the family. It was at this very spot that Karingad Kattakkayil James, husband of Treesa, daughter of late Kanjirathinal George, began an indefinite protest on August 15, 2015, demanding the return of the land.

The dispute, however, is much older. In 1967, brothers Kanjirathinal George and Jose bought 12 acres from Kuttanad Cardamom Company. The Forest Department took over the property in 1976 under the Kerala Private Forests (Vesting and Assignment) Act, 1971. The brothers challenged the takeover before the Forest Tribunal in Kozhikode.

In 1985, the tribunal ruled that all but 75 cents of the property constituted forest land and cancelled the family’s title deed. It also held that the property came under the Madras Preservation of Private Forests Act. The family has been challenging the verdict ever since.

The family now alleges that forest officials had presented a different parcel of land before the tribunal instead of the property bearing survey number 238/1. Reports submitted by revenue and vigilance officials also stated that the land taken over by the Forest Department was agricultural land. These findings, however, did not help the family regain the property.

The long-running dispute has now reached the Supreme Court. A petition submitted by Wayanad journalist Jose Kurian to the Chief Justice of India has been taken up as a special case, with the court’s Public Interest Litigation (PIL) Cell initiating further proceedings. The PIL branch of the apex court has also sought assistance from the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KELSA) to examine the alleged human rights violations and denial of justice faced by the family.

James and the family are now hoping that Supreme Court intervention, coupled with assurances at the cabinet level, will finally bring an end to the long wait. A K Saseendran, during his tenure as forest minister, had assured the family that efforts would be made to resolve the issue at the earliest. T P Ramakrishnan, a minister in the previous government, had alsso informed James that the matter was before the cabinet and that steps were being taken to find a solution.