The first four years of Telangana state has its tribals complaining of Forest Department officials confiscating agricultural lands for taking up plantation drive under the Haritha Haram.
With the panchayat poll notification round the corner, and Assembly and Lok Sabha elections not far behind, there is a remarkable shift in power balance, and now is the turn of the forest officials to be on the back foot.
Officials report a number of instances where villagers are rising against the Haritha Haram planting efforts, reportedly in the certified forest land. Mounting political pressure in the election year compounds the problem.
“Fearing public wrath in an election year, leaders, right from sarpanch to MLA levels, are exerting pressure on us to condone encroachments,” a highly-placed official said. The usual request is to spare the land that had already been under cultivation. However, officials claim that the boundaries become fluid if such lenience is shown.
“It’s not like that the encroachers will clear a big patch of forest land at once. They try to expand the boundaries of their land little by little,” the official says.
In one rare instance recently, cultivators of Kankur village in Jaipur mandal of Mancherial district reportedly contested the claim of the Telangana State Forest Development Corporation (TSFDC) over 120 acres of land. The land-parcel is part of 907 acres attested as forest land in the joint survey conducted by the Revenue and Forest Departments. The land was reportedly handed over to the corporation in 1987 for social forestry initiative. After three cycles of eucalyptus harvest this year, officials planned to undertake Haritha Haram plantation on 412 acres.
“Our officials began work with police protection. A group of villagers came and objected, saying the government gave pattas to them 20 years ago,” said Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the TSFDC Chandan Mitra.
An altercation ensued, and six villagers allegedly climbed up a water tank and threatened to commit suicide, which had the officials on the back foot.
Writ petition
“The Collector and police asked us to stop the work to prevent a law and order problem,” Mr. Mitra said. The villagers later filed a writ petition in the court, claiming ownership of all the 412 acres. Mr. Mitra has sent to the government a report on the incident. A similar instance was reported from Paloncha where people staked claim over 100 acres of land, and the case is in the court now.
In both cases, foresters say that the villagers have been instigated by local leaders, with the lure of getting the land regularised eventually. In some cases, Revenue officials’ connivance is suspected in issuing pattas for forest land. Confrontations with villagers were also reported from Tekulapally and Ramavaram of Kothagudem district.
At Tekulapally, a group of women staged a sit-in, refusing to allow tractors for Haritha Haram work.
The government has received such reports from Adilabad, Khanapur, Kagaznagar, Bellampalli, Khammam, Kothagudem, Yellandu, Sathupalli, Paloncha, Bhupalapally, Eturunagaram, Mahboobabad and Jagtial.