The Telangana forest department is keeping its fingers crossed about the successful shifting of two villages out of the Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR) in Mancherial district as part of the first phase of Project Tiger, as it will be the benchmark for the successive shifting of other villages from KTR and Amrabad Tiger Reserve (ATR).
The officials have zeroed in on a location in Khanapur forest block in Nirmal district for shifting of the two villages Maisampet and Rampur, the residents of which have reportedly given their consent for the relocation, after being shown the site of rehabilitation. The officials will have to either rehabilitate or compensate a total of 142 family units — 105 from Maisampet and 37 from Rampur — before they can be shifted out of the KTR. Under Project Tiger promoted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, adult sons and daughters too are considered family units though they are unmarried.
Each family unit is to be paid ₹ 10 lakh in compensation for shifting out. In case of rehabilitation, each family unit will be given five acres of land and a house in the housing colony, and the proportionate cost of rehabilitation will be deducted from the compensation.
Shifting of the two villages has been approved by the District Level Monitoring Committee, and the department has written to the State government for convening of the State Level Monitoring Committee meeting. “Once the SLMC approves it, we will send it for approval by the NTCA, which will then grant funds for payment of compensation,” an official informed.
Sixty per cent of the compensation will be given by the centre, while 40 per cent is to be borne by the State government. “This is the first time the department is doing anything like this. We want it to be a model project to showcase, so as to make it attractive to other forest dwellers too,” the official said.
People from three tribal hamlets of ATR too evinced interest in the package, but the process of relocation got delayed due to district bifurcation, he said.
Majority of the residents from these hamlets, Sarlapally, Vatvarlapally and Kudichintalabailu expressed interest in moving out of the sanctuary, and a site inside the Bacharam Reserve Forest has been chosen for their relocation.
