TIRUNELVELI: Residents of Manjolai and neighbouring tea estate settlements submitted a petition to the Tirunelveli Collector on Monday, urging the State government to declare the estate region a tourism destination and provide alternative livelihood opportunities to workers who lost their jobs following the closure of tea plantation operations.

In the petition, the residents sought either the revival of plantation activities or the conversion of the estates into tourism destinations. They also requested free house-site pattas and a Rs 25 lakh compensation for each affected resident.

They also sought identity cards to enable visit to ancestral graves and places of worship in the estate twice a year.