Ramesh - A resident of Gavi.

The migration of Indian-origin Tamils from Sri Lanka to India began several decades ago. Although the Indian government was initially reluctant to settle them outside Tamil Nadu due to language barriers and potential local conflicts, it later changed its policy and resettled them in three parts of Kerala and in Sullia, Karnataka.

This is the story of Ramesh who now working as a guide for the tourists coming here in Gavi through the eco-tourism project of KFDC. His father Venkitachalam has five siblings—three brothers and two sisters. As the fifth child, he arrived in Gavi, a plantation managed by the Kerala Forest Development Corporation in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, along with his younger brother and sister. His eldest brother and his family live on a rubber plantation in Sullia, located in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. Another brother resides in Ooty, Tamil Nadu, while one of his sisters has settled in Kulathupuzha, a specially established rubber plantation for the rehabilitation of Indian-origin Tamils in the Kollam district of Kerala. Ramesh, Venkitachalam’s son, married a girl from Sullia to maintain the family connection. The couple has two children. Wife and children were in Sullia as school vacation was going on for them when I visited Gavi in May/2024.