KALLAKURICHI: A 56-year-old woman, C Dhanabakkiyam, whose family was ostracised by villagers for more than five years following a dispute over a borewell, died due to sudden illness on Wednesday in the remote Thalvazhapadi village near Vellimalai in Kalvarayan Hills of Kallakurichi district.The villagers opposed carrying the woman’s body through the village pathways and denied the right to perform the last rites at the burial ground in the village. Left with no option, the family members performed the last rites and buried the body on their own agricultural land on Thursday.None of the villagers attended the ceremony following a diktat by ‘village elders’. The family’s relatives from neighbouring villages attended the ceremony.Relatives of Dhanabakkiyam said she and her husband A Chinnaiyan, 66, owned a small piece of agricultural land at Thalvazhapadi village. Forty years ago, the govt dug a borewell in their land to cater to the drinking water needs of the villagers. The borewell, which served the community for three decades, fell into disuse and remained uncared for the past 10 years, prompting Chinnaiyan’s family to repair and use it for their own needs five years ago.The couple’s son-in-law, L Rajkumar, 46, a farmer, said the village elders objected to their independent use of the borewell and directed the couple to transfer the three-cent land in which the well was located to the village. “My in-laws refused to heed the village elders’ ‘order’ to transfer the property but did not object to the villagers using the well. However, the village elders imposed an arbitrary penalty, demanding a fine of Rs 3 lakh and issuing orders to the villagers to boycott the family. For more than five years, no resident in the village was permitted to speak to or interact with the family, leaving us isolated and distressed within our own community,” said Rajkumar.The village elders issued ‘fresh orders’ on Wednesday following Dhanabakkiyam’s death prohibiting villagers from visiting her house, assisting in moving the body, or allocating space at the burial ground. Stranded without community support or burial access, the bereaved family buried the body on their land on Thursday.
