India, Feb. 23 -- Twenty-three years after the brutal police firing on landless Adivasis at Muthanga in Wayanad, the vexed tribal land question has once again moved to the centre of public debate in Kerala.

Recent statements by senior tribal leaders C K Janu and M Geethanandan, warning of renewed agitation, reflect a larger reality unfolding across the state. Land struggles involving Adivasi communities continue in different forms, and the core demand that brought hundreds of families into the forests of Wayanad in 2003 remains unresolved.

Speaking on the anniversary of the Muthanga crackdown on February 19, C K Janu said the condition of Kerala's tribal communities has not fundamentally changed since the agitation. According to her, go...