Tension gripped seafront village of Voderavu, near Chirala in Prakasam district, as fisherfolk offered stiff resistance to attempts by the police to evict them from government land on Monday. Even as the police took into custody about 30 protesters including CPI(M) leader M. Vasantha Rao, and Sarpanch E. Ramana and shifted them to Epurupalem police station, fisherwomen stood to their ground. They foiled repeated attempts by the police to remove them. They threatened to end their lives by setting themselves ablaze if the police tried to remove them. The stand-off continued till late in the evening. On a complaint from Mandal Revenue Officer M. Venkateswarlu, a posse of police personnel stormed the village and tried in vain to destroy the sheds put up within the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) as part of the district administration’s plans to beautify the picturesque beach, Chirala Circle Inspector V. Suryanarayana said. Over 300 fishermen families had raised huts in the area and sending fish consignments after drying there to various places in Tamil Nadu and Kerala on a regular basis. They feared loss of livelihood if they were dislodged from there.