Five years of Sarsala attack: How land pattas are encouraging forest encroachers in Kumram Bheem Asifabad

Adilabad: Five years on, nothing has changed viz forest encroachment in Kagaznagar Division in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district.

No, wait! A change can be seen in the perception and attitude of encroachers, but sadly, it is only a change for the worse.

It may be recalled that a group of villagers led by politicians attacked the then Kagaznagar Forest Range Officer Chole Anitha and her team on June 30, 2019. The team had gone to the forest land close to Kotha Sarasala village to prevent it from getting encroached so that a plantation could be raised as planned.

Local politicians instigated the villagers and led them to attack the Forest Department team with sticks. All the team members including the FRO were injured in the violence.

The incident had attracted country-wide attention exposing the role of politicians in the illegal decimation of pristine forests. The incident had also become a symbol of the resistance of the Forest Department in Telangana in tackling the menace of forest encroachment.

In a measure of a show of unity within the Department and in solidarity with the team that had prevented from the land being encroached on in Raspally Beat, all top officials had gathered at the site on 1 July that year to collectively plant saplings to raise the plantation.

Over 20,000 saplings were planted that day in compartments 135 and 136 in Kadamba Extension Reserve Forest Block by the officials under Compensatory Afforestation for the forest lost due to the now controversial Kaleshwaram project. At present the trees in the plantation show a healthy growth as a result of the care taken by the Department.

Coming back to the change that has been observed in the attitude of encroachers, officials blame how rights pattas under the FRA were issued recently. It is not the lack of awareness among the encroachers, swear the officials.

"The offenders are brazenly encroaching on forest lands, smug in the knowledge that some future government is going to regularise the encroachment, chiefly under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA). The encroachers force the Forest officials to book a case in their name so that they can prove that the forest clearing was made by them and it helps the individuals in staking their claim on the piece of land," a Forest department official explained the kind of change that is being observed in the field.

"The government has committed a mistake while giving off pattas, especially in the recent past. There are instances where encroachers were given pattas to lands situated right in the middle of thick forests and even in plantations," pointed out a senior official.

"We are moving heaven and earth to stop people from occupying forests literally due to such mistakes. Some of such pattas have been stayed for now but an effective way to prevent the decimation of forests is by way of strengthening the relevant laws and ensuring that the encroachers do not receive political support," he added.

The enthusiasm of governments in alienating forest lands 'easily' in favor of encroachers is what motivates the latter to clear forests or perpetrate violence. Quoting many recent incidents of violence against the Forest staff, an official indicated the extreme sacrifice of Chandrugonda (Bhadradri Kothagudem district) FRO Ch. Srinivas Rao was killed in a violent incident in 2022.