Panel clears proposal to relocate 2 villages inside KTR

HYDERABAD: Five years after the Kawal wildlife sanctuary was declared as a tiger reserve in 2012, the state-level monitoring committee headed by Chief Secretary SP Singh on Wednesday cleared `14.2 crore proposal, to relocate 142 families from two villages —Mysampet and Rampur — inside core area of the tiger reserve.

P S Somashekar, Inspector General of forests said that as per rule, State government should provide pay 50 per cent of the required money for relocation. He said the Centre was ready with other half of the funds. As per NTCA guidelines, two options were offered to the villagers — one is payment of `10 lakh as cash per family and other is to provide land, of same value, in the periphery of the forest. 

While 48 families have opted for direct cash payment, 94 families have opted  for land. About 280 acres of Khanapur reserve forest has been demarcated to be distributed to them.  The discussions for relocation were on since two years. The villagers were even taken to Tadoba tiger reserve in Maharashtra where relocation of village from core area is being successfully carried out.