Hyderabad: According to forest officials, encroachments in the Kawal Tiger Reserve’s core area have been unsettling wildlife and causing a man-animal conflict. As a result, they have taken stringent measures against the encroachers, the majority of whom are from tribal communities.
Separate complaints were filed against 24 members of the Koipochiguda tribe on Thursday. 12 women accused of the crime have been arrested.
The people living adjacent to the forest area have cut down trees to cultivate the forest land for the last four to five months. When officials learned of the tree-cutting at compartment 379 in Lingapoor, they hurried to the scene and prevented the tribals from cutting any more trees. Ten lawsuits have been filed against the accused, reported The New Indian Express (TNIE).
According to forest officials, encroachments on forest lands have surged since Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao last year said that the government would issue pattas. Despite the fact that the application period for the same has ended, the authorities have taken no action to remedy the problem.
“The administration must find a solution and put an end to the incursion. Otherwise, the forests will be merely on paper in a few years,” said an official who did not want to be identified.
“The Koipochiguda settlement is not recognised under the Forest Rights Act,” Forest Range Officer Thallapet G Rathnakar Rao was quoted by TNIE.
“If the Koipochiguda village does not come under the Forest Rights Act, how was it that the Koipochiguda village was not under the Forest Rights Act?” Adivasi Sena State President Kova Daulath Rao said when approached.
According to the report, Soyam Bapu Rao, an Adilabad MP and BJP leader met with 12 tribal women who had been detained in separate cases of forest encroachment and were sent to the Adilabad district jail. Rao gave the women sarees and fruits and promised that the problem will be taken up with the ST Commission, the NWC, and the Centre.
