Elangamani residents seek Collector’s intervention to recover destroyed burial site
Residents of Elangamani village have petitioned the District Collector to take action against real estate developers who allegedly desecrated and encroached upon a traditional community burial ground. The villagers claim the land was illegally reclassified in government records.
Why it matters
This case reflects broader issues of land encroachment and the erosion of community cultural heritage by commercial interests.
Representing over 100 families from Elangamani village in Vannangundu panchayat of Ramanathapuram’s Kilakarai taluk, villagers submitted a petition during the Collector’s Public Grievance Redress meeting here on Monday, demanding legal action against individuals who desecrated their community’s generations-old burial ground.
Sakthivel, a villager, said: “Some real estate businessmen used a crane to damage the burial ground that our community people had used for generations, ploughed it and erased the identity of the burial ground’s existence.”
Further, they were attempting to encroach upon the burial ground and use it as a public space, he added.
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