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Eviction threat looms over migrant Gutti Koya Adivasis
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The gruesome killing of a Forest Range Officer allegedly by the Gutti Koya tribe members triggered a wave of protests by Forest employees; the tribals receive an eviction notice after just five days of the murder

December 02, 2022 08:19 am | Updated 12:12 pm IST - YERRABODU (Bhadradri Kothagudem)

A Gutti Koya tribal family in an Internally Displaced Family settlement.

A Gutti Koya tribal family in an Internally Displaced Family settlement.

An eerie calm pervades this tiny tribal settlement of the migrant Gutti Koya Adivasis as the clamour for their eviction from Yerrabodu grows shriller.

Unrest after a murder

In the aftermath of the brutal murder of a diligent Forest Range Officer, Ch Srinivas Rao, allegedly by two Gutti Koya tribals of this hamlet located in the forest area of Chandrugonda mandal over a week ago, unrest brewed.

A little over 250 members of around 45 Gutti Koya families living in thatched huts/tiled-roof dwellings in the Yerrabodu forest area, devoid of electricity, near Bendalapadu village, located around 5 km from Chandrugonda, in the tribal majority Bhadradri Kothagudem district, are facing the prospect of eviction.

The gruesome killing of the FRO at Yerrabodu on November 22 triggered a wave of protests by the rank-and-file of forest employees across the State and set off a strident demand for the provision of arms to the frontline forest staff and officials for self-defence.

The ‘unprovoked’ fatal attack on the FRO took place when the latter, accompanied by a section officer, arrived in Yerrabodu on a bike on that ill-fated day to prevent an alleged attempt by some local migrant tribals to damage saplings by allowing cattle to graze in a plantation raised by the forest department on a 25-acre ‘retrieved’ forest land.

The grisly crime had sparked outrage, and the forest staff vociferously demanded exemplary punishment for the killers.

The podu conflict

The forest staff turned their ire at the Gutti Koya tribals who migrated to the State from Chhattisgarh. The tribals were unable to cope with the persecution by Salwa Judum, the ‘State-sponsored militia’ in their native strife-torn State since 2004-05. They were penalised for “destroying forests” in the name of podu, shifting cultivation.

The incident coincided with the survey of the podu lands initiated by the State government to find a lasting solution to the podu land issues within the ambit of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, all over the State.

The Bendalapadu Gram Panchayat, predominantly inhabited by local Koya tribals, passed a resolution on November 26 (Saturday), four days after the ghastly murder of the FRO, for sending the migrant Gutti Koya tribals of Yerrabodu back to their native places in Chhattisgarh.

Eviction notice

The very next day, the forest officials had served eviction notices on the Gutti Koya tribals of Yerrabodu.

Distressed over the sudden turn of events, the Gutti Koya tribals of Yerrabodu have been making fervent appeals to the authorities to spare them from eviction and displacement.

Ravva Ramesh, who first migrated to the place from Konta tehsil in Chhattisgarh, said they unequivocally condemned the murder of the FRO by two members of their hamlet in a “fit of rage”.

“We never had any hostility towards the FRO, and it is not fair to blame the entire tribe for the crime committed by two members,” he maintained.

We have been eking out a living by cultivating podu lands for a long, he said, claiming that they were in possession of ration cards, Aadhaar and voter ID cards.

‘Vested interests behind hate campaign’

When asked about the resolution of the Bendalapadu Gram Panchayat to expel them from the area, a migrant tribal youth said, “Some vested elements are behind the hate campaign against us with the sole intention of driving us away from Yerrabodu to capture our podu lands.”

Sources in the Forest department say nearly 25% of the encroached forest lands in Telangana are in Bhadradri Kothagudem district, which shares a volatile border with Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar division, considered the hotbed of Maoist activity.

According to sources in ITDA, Bhadrachalam, as many as 83,341 applications were received for 2.98 lakh acres of forest lands from claimants for sanction of title deeds under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in Bhadradri Kothagudem district.

The survey has been completed using mobile apps and the scrutiny of the resolutions passed by the Gram Sabhas is presently underway at the Sub-Divisional Level Committees for preparing the record of forest rights for final approval by the District Level Committee, sources added.

This hamlet is one among an estimated 39 such temporary settlements built by the Gutti Koya tribals in Charla, Dummugudem, Mulakalapalli, Chandrugonda, Paloncha and various other mandals in the erstwhile composite Khammam district in a phased manner since 2004-2005, sources added.

The appalling Yerrabodu incident comes in the backdrop of frequent skirmishes between the forest staff and the Gutti Koya tribals over podu land issues in various temporary settlements of the migrant tribals in Telangana’s tribal heartland in the recent past

However, the forest staff contend that the Gutti Koyas set up the makeshift settlement in the forest area illegally after 2016 and their claims under the FRA, 2006, stand invalid, as per the cut-off date of December 13, 2005.

Also read | Political will— the one key to Gutti Koya Conundrum

‘No claim’

“They are outsiders and not recognised as tribes in Telangana and as such, they cannot stake a claim for tiles under the RoFR Act,” said a forest official.

They erected huts in the forest area near Bendalapadu, named it as Yerrabodu, akin to the name of the tribal habitation from where they originally hail from Sukma district in Chhattisgarh.

They started cultivating forest lands illegally in the name of ‘podu’ and ignored the notices served on them by our staff to vacate the forest land thereby destroying forest and denying their children access to education, he alleged.

But the Gutti Koyas of Yerrabodu insisted that the forest staff allegedly dug up trenches and raised a plantation in the name of ‘Haritha Haram’ in their podu land spread over 25 acres.

We have applied for title deeds for these lands being tilled by us for a long time, asserted Ravi, a migrant tribal man.

Despite having MGNREGS job cards, we are not getting work on a regular basis forcing our families to depend on ‘podu cultivation’ for livelihood, he said, adding that their lives are intertwined with forests, and they will stay put in Yerrabodu till their last breath.

The Gutti Koya tribals from Chhattisgarh erected huts in Yerrabodu forest area during 2016 and caused depletion of forest cover in the area, said A Appaiah, Forest Divisional Officer, Kothagudem, citing satellite imagery.

We have counselled them to relocate to the fringe areas of forests to prevent loss of forest cover, but in vain, he noted, adding that the migrant Gutti Koya tribals failed to respond to the earlier eviction notices served on them two months ago.

The CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Prajapandha State secretary Potu Ranga Rao termed the move to expel migrant Gutti Koyas from the State as “anti-constitutional”. Gutti Koyas are the citizens of India, and they have a constitutional right to live anywhere in the country, Mr Rao contended.

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