Despite podu push, BRS failed to impress forest dwellers in Telangana

HYDERABAD: The distribution of podu land pattas by the previous BRS-led government, particularly in the 11 Assembly constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities failed to elicit desired results for the party in the Assembly elections.

ST community members are the primary beneficiaries of the ST and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006 (RoR Act), under which fresh podu claims were granted.

The BRS won just three of those 11 seats in the elections, the Congress sweeping eight.

Although the BRS government had set in motion the process of granting podu pattas in 2021, it was only in June 2023 that the then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao launched the distribution of passbooks for the newly approved podu land claims.

The state tribal welfare department, after a long process, approved 1,50,012 claims from tribals, covering 4,05,601 acres in 26 districts.

Most of these approved claims were from the erstwhile undivided Khammam, Adilabad and Warangal districts, in which 10 of the 11 ST-reserved constituencies fall, with Devarakonda, the exception, coming under the erstwhile Nalgonda district.

In Khammam, the BRS won from Bhadrachalam, while Aswaraopet, Pinapaka, Yellandu, and Wyra were wrested by the Congress. In Adilabad, BRS hung on to Asifabad and Boath, while Congress defeated it in Khanapur. In Warangal, Congress retained Mulugu, while snatching Dornakal.

Incidentally, the drive by the BRS government for issuing new podu pattas saw Telangana state emerge top the country in this sector, with 10.69 per cent of its forest land going podu cultivation — amounting to 7.13 lakh acres of the total 66.64 lakh acres.

A factor that went against the BRS was the failure of then state tribal welfare department — headed by BRS MLC and then tribal welfare minister Satyavthi Rathod — to approve 1,71,580 claims filed by other traditional forest dwellers (OFTDs).

This part of the approval process could not be done due to the “restrictive criteria” in the (RoR Act), requiring 75 years of possession prior to the cut-off date of 13-12-2005. This which esulted in OFTD claims set aside as pending, according to the department.

 

Despite fresh pattas, BRS lost in 7 Podu strongholds

Constituency     2018    2023

Bhadrachalam   Cong.   Cong.

Aswaraopet        BRS     Cong.

Pinapaka             BRS     Cong.

Yellandu              BRS    Cong.

Wyra                   BRS    Cong.

Asifabad              BRS    BRS

Boath                  BRS    BRS

Khanapur            BRS    Cong.

Dornakal             BRS    Cong.

Mulugu               Cong.  Cong.

Devarakonda      BRS    Cong.

 

State - Forest area* – Claims accepted - Podu land* - % of forest area

 

Telangana        66.64 – 2,46,688 – 7.13 – 10.69

Chhattisgarh    147.80 – 4,46, 041 – 8.98 – 6.08

Andhra Pradesh – 92.06 – 2,17, 981 – 4.84

Odisha             151.23 – 454454 – 6.67 – 4.41

Madhya Pradesh – 233.97 – 2,66,609 – 9.02 – 3.86

Gujarat – 54.04 – 91,686 – 1.56 – 2.89

Maharashtra – 153.08 – 1,65,032 – 3.93 – 2.57

Jharkhand – 62.06 – 59,866 – 1.53 – 2.47

 

*In Lakh Acres