An 88-year-old Catholic bishop and 23 others are facing legal action in southern Indian Kerala state for entering a restricted forest after they led a march demanding the reopening of a blocked public road. Kerala State Forest Department filed charges against retired Bishop George Punnakottil of Kothamangalam and others, including elected representatives, for violating forest laws and trespassing into the forest land. “It is highly condemnable that a case of trespass has been registered against an elderly bishop” for advocating a public cause, said Father James Kokkavayalil, the secretary of the Public Affairs Commission of the Eastern Rite Syro-Malabar Church on March 24. The bishop and political leaders led a march of some 3,000 people on March 23 along a public road that the forest department closed for traffic and denied public entry in 2012. The department also opposed the proposals to reopen the road, saying it passes through ten kilometres of protected forest and that traffic noise and vehicle pollution will harm the environment and endanger wildlife. Protesters say that the road constructed during the British colonial era continues to be the shortest route connecting Aluva town near the western coast to Munnar town in the eastern hills. It cuts the distance by some 30 kilometres and does not have sharp hikes and slopes, “Munnar is an internationally acclaimed tourist destination. Reopening of the road will help local people and tourist traffic,” Father Kokkavayalil told UCA News on Mar. 24. In a March 23 statement, the eastern rite bishops’ body said the forest department’s move against the bishop and others “is unlawful as it blocked the public movement illegally.” The land of the road belongs to the “revenue department and not to the forest,” it said. The bishops also accused the forest department of usurping the public road and “infringing upon citizens’ right to free movement.” Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) also issued a statement on March 24 deploring the legal action and urging the state government to “immediately correct the forest department’s anti-people policies.”
The statement said the forest department “grossly misused” the law against people pressing for their basic facilities.
It asked the department to withdraw all such legal moves against people. Several cases were registered against people allegedly for violating India’s Wildlife Protection Act 1972, a federal law meant to protect forests and wild animals, after they protested the government’s failure to protect them from wild animal attacks. According to government data, 486 people were killed in wild animal attacks between 2019-2024. At least 22 people were killed by elephants, and a person was mauled to death by a tiger in the state in 2023-24. Other wild animal attacks killed 71 people.