Telangana: Podu land cultivators having ROFR pattas fear they will lose lands

ADILABAD: The state government's plan to stop ROFR podu land cultivation inside the forests and allocate alternative land for such purposes in the periphery of forests on the borders of villages is causing anxiety among those who hold ROFR lands.

Most of the podu agriculture fields for which ROFR pattas were issued, as also forests located side-by-side and sometimes even agriculture fields share borders with the forests.

Adivasis say that the state government is aiming at tiger conservation. Forest officials have identified some 20 villages that fall in the tiger corridor in Kagaznagar forest division and the Kawal tiger buffer zone as also the core area in the erstwhile Adilabad district for this purpose. 

A statement to the effect that “None is inside .. inside is only forest,” had been made by chief minister Chandrashekar Rao during a recent review meeting on Podu lands and protection of forests. “This reflects the mood of KCR on the forest and podu lands,” Adivasis say.  

These landowners are worried that, in the process, they may lose their agricultural lands. The state government has said it is planning to stop podu cultivation inside the forests for the conservation of forests.

The Forest department has tried to relocate some identified villages inside the Kawal Tiger Reserve and even allocated Rs14 crore for the purpose but this did not materialise.

Fact is that many farmers are cultivating lands for which they got ROFR pattas. In some cases, these lands are inside the forests where tiger movement is found as in Bejjur and Penchikalpet as also Chinthalamanepalli mandal in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.

In such cases, the forest officials are planning to offer alternative land equivalent to the podu ROFR land that is inside the forest.

The Adivasis say forest official may cancel the ROFR pattas of the podu lands located inside forests after stopping the cultivation there. In the event, the farmer may not get an alternative land and thus they would be denied of their right over their land over a period of time.

Forest officials say the podu cultivation and habitations inside the reserve forests have been posing hurdles in tiger conservation efforts and they have been trying to relocate the villages that are inside the core and buffer areas in the old Adilabad district.