Kalvarayan hills (a range of mountains in Tamil Nadu’s eastern ghats) have 180 villages encircling them. They fall within Kallakurichi and four other adjoining districts. A significant majority of them joined the Indian Union only in the late 70s after a special legislation was passed. However, over the decades, these villages became infamous for brewing illicit liquor.
One such village is Puliyankottai, with a population of 2000 members. A notorious act in this village, resembling a scene from erstwhile Tamil movies, is making news now. The village heads here have auctioned the ‘rights’ to brew illicit liquor keeping a base price of Rs.10 lakhs. Intriguingly, a woman bootlegger made the highest bid and won the so-called permit to distill and sell arrack for Rs.33 lakhs.
The woman is absconding now after police went to the village making inquiries about the auction. Some villagers recall that fights between bootleggers used to be a common sight and were disturbing the peace. So, the village’s self-proclaimed heads decided to take matters into their hands and began auctioning rights to brew country liquor.
The person winning the auction remains the only one in the region to distill and supply arrack during the year. While others wait for the next bidding season. The money collected through auctioning, a villager says, is used for hosting village temple festivals and for other development works. The arrack bids in a few other villages were in the range of Rs. 3-5 lakhs.
Some villagers admit that brewing arrack is illegal. However, they say that it’s their socio-cultural practice to serve a sumptuous feast to guests. And it is incomplete without country liquor.
Kallakurichi SP S Selvakumar has dismissed these reports as false. He said police teams visited villages adjoining Kalvarayan Hills and found these claims to be inauthentic. Stating that there was no auction, he added, “We found that the village elders convened a meeting to discuss initiatives to be taken to raise funds to renovate an old temple in one of the villages.”
Nonetheless, “We have launched efforts to train and guide younger generation…roping in several educational academies to visit the village and train the students,” said SP Selvakumar.
However, anti-liquor activists in the region and some communist party functionaries assert that the Kalvarayan Hills are notorious for brewing and selling illegal country liquor and have been in practice over several decades.
What these hamlets need is employment opportunities for their youth and some sort of support to make farming lucrative. Also education for children and awareness among the villagers about the harm they could be inflicting upon themselves. Government should mull over a concerted campaign, and involve like-minded individuals and groups to transform these tipsy villages into agriculturally prosperous ones.
Reference: The Times of India