Mangaluru: An old car, which comes from time to time when only having a four-wheeled car is considered a status symbol, is a 48-year-old Gowda Chandrashekar house for the past 18 years.
The car has been parked on the edge of the forest in Aranthodu, from where he has raw materials for the basket he used, which he sold for subsistence.
Gowda, a driver of Noohalu in Sullia Taluk, reduced to poverty after the cooperative community auctioned 2.2 acre agriculture when he failed to pay a loan, after he turned his car to his house.
Given the isolation of Gowda who protracted in his house, he had become part of the local sights in Aranthodu, and the district administration in Dakshina Kannada had made efforts to bring it back into folds.
In 2016, Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner AB Ibrahim reached out to Gowda through local officials.
Officials in the income and the department of the forest also tried to pull them out of their forced securation by offering Him, while Ibrahim even offered him a job, with a promise to shift him to Mangaluru.
Gowda produces all this offer, expresses satisfaction with his life.
Sullia Tahsildar Anitha Lakshmi told Tii, “he was very reluctant to get out of his car.
I personally talked to him, and he told me that he liked life from his car.
He weaved a basket to make a living, and very intend to be independent that He rejected the money offered by others.
Gowda even rejected excess money if the customer offered to pay more for his basket.
We have done everything we can to bring back to the mainstream.
“The Range Sullia Forest officer, Girish showed that Gowda had refused the offer district government for a site.
“The place where he lives does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Forestry,” Girish said, adding that the Forestry also tried to persuade Gowda to return to the public.
Gowda has taken a loan of RS 54,000 from the Cooperative Bank in 1999, and three years later, when he could not pay the amount, the land was auctioned, making him poor and homeless.