As Chincholi goes to bypolls on Sunday, an important issue that has gone unaddressed is regularisation of unauthorised cultivation of forestlands in Konchavaram, a border village in the taluk.
Range Forest Officer of Chincholi (wildlife sanctuary) Sanjeev Chavan said that after the forest was declared wildlife sanctuary in 2011, the Kalaburagi forest division decided to expedite steps to relocate families from Konchavaram, the largest and most remote settlement inside the sanctuary, in a time-bound manner.
Of the 1,034 individual applications received from families dwelling in Chincholi forest pockets for more than four decades, only 526 were regularised. The 526 eligible families will be relocated along with settlement benefits under the Centre’s Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitat Scheme under the Forest Rights Act. The families are considered to be entitled to have such lands if occupied before 1980 and it is regularised in their name.
However, the remaining 508 families are left in the lurch as they will be deprived of any land and compensation.
Chincholi constituency, home to two-time Chief Minister the late Veerendra Patil, has been in the news for cases of child trafficking and rampant migration. The forest-dwellers suffer from extreme poverty with families giving up their children for adoption. To improve the economic conditions of these Banjara families staying in tandas, the then government had promised to establish a training-cum-production centre of Banjara traditional craft and artisan, but the government failed in delivering on its promise.
In the late ’80s, Naxalites from the neighbouring Mahabubnagar in Telangana tried to establish their bases in Konchavaram forest. The inaccessible and dense forest area and lack of development have been conducive to expand Naxal activities in Konchavaram forest. But the then government had succeeded in curtailing Naxalite activities by taking up a number of development programmes in the affected areas.