HYDERABAD: In many ways, it was only a matter of time before someone was killed as a result of the Telangana government's promise to illegal forest land occupiers that they would be given pattas for the land under the guise of referring to the illegal occupation of forest land as part of the larger Podu lands issue.
The axe fell on dedicated forest range officer Ch Srinivasa Rao on Tuesday, which was a completely avoidable and unfortunate outcome.
To begin with, the government's promise of 'podu land pattas' for illegal occupants of forest land in the state could not be fulfilled. The powers-that-be were well aware of it. If it had been possible, the issue would not have been debated for the past three years, with the government thinking up various “steps” to determine who is eligible for such pattas.
The fact remains that anyone who occupied forest land after the December 13, 2005, cut-off date is clearly ineligible for any kind of rights over the forest land under their occupation.
This was a clear line that everyone in the government knew, but a poorly thought-out promise, apparently for political gain, was allowed to simmer, with politicians, particularly from the TRS, egging on people to occupy more and more forest land once the government made its promise.
There have been numerous instances of MLAs, and even some ministers, calling on illegal occupants to beat up any forest officer who tries to evict them from their ill-gotten forest land, and the sight of a TRS MLA’s brother beating up a women forest officer in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district in June 2019 remains fresh in the collective memory of all forest department officials. Worse, the MLA was later caught on video telling villagers to accuse the forest officials of attacking them rather than the other way around.
The other parties, the Congress and the BJP, jumped on the ‘podu’ land pattas bandwagon after realising the issue had potential political benefits, and their consistent demands that the government keep its promise only added fuel to the fire.
Despite knowing that there was little the Telangana government could do to grant ‘podu’ land pattas — with none other than TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao this July asking the Centre to amend the Recognition of Forest Rights Act (RoFR Act) to allow the state to issue pattas for some 12 lakh acres of occupied forest land in Telangana — it continued with various steps to give the impression that the pattas would be granted.
The worst possible cut to the forest department staff in Telangana, mourning the loss of their colleague on Monday, is the decision of the government not to evict the Guttikoya tribals – migrants from Chhattisgarh who the Chief Minister was once clear that must be sent back to their home state.
“The situation has changed since the intention to send them back was first talked about. The Chhattisgarh government was ready to take them back but the Telangana government kept quiet after the initial noises it made on the issue. Now more and more people from Chhattisgarh are coming into Telangana forests and settling down as they are confident they will be allowed to stay in the forests, occupy the forest land. The worst part is, most of them are not even tribals,” a well-placed source with knowledge of this issue revealed.
