In addition, Sri Lankan Tamils, repatriated into the country following the Lal Bahadur Shastri-Srimavo Bandarnaike Pact of 1963, were often duped into buying small plots of land and were given fake documents. There are around 300,000 repatriates in Gudalur. Says one of them, S Kandasamy, "We were settled here by the Tamil Nadu government. It's not right to call us encroachers." Kandasamy is a plantation worker like many other repatriates. "We used to work in tea plantations in Dambula, Sri Lanka. It's good that we found work in plantation areas," he says.

Such livelihood imperatives were hardly the concern of land grabbers. In contrast to the small encroachers, the grabbers took much larger areas, primarily for estate purposes. Typically, areas 'grabbed' could range from 10 ha to 400 ha, even 2000 ha. Characteristically, the grabbers were able to get assistance of lawyers, officials and politicians to produce official documents to substantiate their claim over the lands grabbed, unlike the small encroachers.

The state government was not totally impervious to encroachments. In 1978, it started an eviction drive. The move, however, ended in just four days, after Louis, a farmer who had occupied lands in 1972, immolated himself in front of the revenue divisional office of Gudalur. A public funeral, protest and political support even ensured a visit by the then Tamil Nadu chief minister, MG Ramachandran.

Evictions resumed in 1981. The state government amended the Tamil Nadu Forest Act, 1882, and provided for summary eviction of occupants in reserved forests. Even as protests assumed political hues, more than 700 families occupying nearly 600 ha in erstwhile janmom and non- janmom lands were evicted. But Tamil Nadu had to bring the operations to a halt again, following a stay order of the Supreme Court. The order was in response to a public interest litigation filed by three Gudalur farmers. The Tamil Nadu government was instructed to exercise restraint in evicting settlers. In 1988, the court also suggested that the state government grant title deeds to occupants of the reserved forests. But the state did not pay much heed to the apex court's suggestion.

The forests surrounding Gudalur are extremely valuable, primarily because of a large number of rosewood and teak trees. These trees can fetch several lakh rupees in the open market. Further, once forests are cleared, the land is fertile and can be used for tea and coffee estates. An undeveloped acre of land in Gudalur would sell for an estimated Rs one lakh, while an acre planted with tea would go for Rs 4 lakh or more.

It's not surprising, therefore, that encroachments more than doubled between 1991 and 2002. This coincided with a tea and spice boom, increase in land speculation and timber poaching. The forest and revenue departments did not intervene in the real estate enterprise. Says Krishnan, "Encroachments manifested as livelihood exigencies till the mid-1980s. They then took the form of a quasi-legal enterprise founded on possession - rather than proprietorship."

Encroacher farmers have preempted evictions by filing writs in district court or the Madras High Court. Many encroachers of janmom lands possess fabricated documents - ostensibly pre-1969 agreements with the janmies. According to Krishnan, lower courts in Gudalur and Ooty have been liberal in admitting land- related litigation on the basis of fabricated evidence. More frequently, possession is granted on the basis of admissible evidence of inhabitation and cultivation.

Encroachment also reflects corruption. Krishnan notes that some state counsels do not even appear in court during encroachment related court cases, resulting in interested parties gaining legal hold over the encroached land.

"The only form of cultivation we know is poddu (shifting cultivation). We do not know how to cultivate tea. Besides, who would allow us to work in tea estates," says Bairam, an Irula from O'valley, adjacent to Gudalur.

It hasn't helped that the fate of tribals like him is now linked to the Godavarman Case, 1995 - that overarching case under which the Supreme Court deals with forest-related litigation.

Thirumalapad Godavarman, himself from the Nilambur Kovilagam family, was moved to file the case after he found large tracts of forests in his ancestral estate degraded. But he had precious little to say about encroachment by planters and land grabbers. Tribals, however, were a different kettle of fish for the Nilambur Kovilagam scion. According to his lawyer, Jacob Mathew, "The tribals cannot live with their land. There is no point giving land to them."

Selvaraj counters this slandering aptly. "It was the janmies who destroyed the forests by converting them to tea plantations. Now their descendant (Godavarman) has gone to the apex court, pretending to be the saviour of forests.