“If you cut us, do we not bleed?,” thunders an exasperated Vinod Kumar, a resident of Koranur village near Udhagamandalam in the Nilgiris. Vinod Kumar resides in one of two villages populated by Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities in Ebbanad panchayat.
The two villages, home to more than 45 Dalit and Adivasi families, were overjoyed after bus services were recently extended to Koranur from Ebbanad village, populated by the dominant Badaga community.
However, their joy of no longer having to walk from Koranur and Bikkapathy Mund, measuring 2 km and 4 km respectively to Ebbanad, soon turned to anger and frustration after hundreds of people from Ebbanad staged a protest for over five hours late Wednesday evening, preventing the bus from reaching Koranur.
