The vicious atmosphere witnessed in the open degraded forest land near Sarasala on Sunday was replaced by a festive ambience within a day as nearly 300 officers and personnel from 13 districts in Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad Forest Circles enthusiastically participated in planting saplings on Monday on the 20 hectare plot in compartments 133 and 136 in Kadamba forest block in Kagaznagar Forest Division which was central to the attack on forest personnel.
Top officials like the Chief Conservators of Forest of Warangal and Adilabad Forest Circles M.J. Akbar, C.P. Vinod Kumar, Ramagundam Commissioner of Police V. Satyanarayana and Kumram Bheem Asifabad district Superintendent of Police M. Malla Reddy called the collective effort as demonstration of the will of the State government to protect forests.
Over 200 policemen led by the two top police officers were deployed to ensure peace at the place but the jovial mood of the participants did not betray the heavy presence of force. Warangal Region Inspector General of Police Y. Nagi Reddy was present at the district headquarters town monitoring the situation.
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Deserted village
Normally buzzing with activity at this time of the year, the village, however, looked deserted and people declined to interact with any outsider on the ugly issue. Police has booked case against some 30 villagers for their role in the attack on forest personnel.
Mr. Akbar was all praise for the manner in which the plantation was taken up towards compensatory afforestation for Kaleshwaram project.
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“The senior officers who have turned up from other districts are here to express solidarity with those who had come under attack,” he observed.
“We are here till we complete planting saplings across the area. The area will be fenced off to provide protection,” Mr. Vinod added.
New village
Sarasala was divided into two earlier this year and the new entity where the dastardly action was concentrated, called Kotha Sarasala, was made a gram panchayat. The population of the new village is around 600 and there are 170 houses with 250 land pattadars.
The extent of land under cultivation in both old and new villages is about 1,400 acres. Some 70 villagers were assigned lands previously.
“There are 15 tribal families in the old combined village of whom only two were given rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. These lands, nevertheless, were not part of the 20 hectare in question,” Kagaznagar Tahsildar K. Vanaja explained.