Reclamation of forest lands, especialy from the possession of poor Adivasi encroachers, has been a messy business as seen during eviction of Guthikoyas in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district in September 2017 and Kolams in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district on June 12. It is quite evident that lack of clear guidelines for resuming encroached forest lands had the Forest Department evict the encroachers rather ‘crudely’ resulting in a sudden upheaval in their lives which includes loss of shelter and livelihood.
The second incident has sent shock waves among aboriginal people, especially Kolams living in forests of erstwhile united Adilabad district. They are scared of forcible eviction given the Forest Department digging trenches around their habitations to demarcate the boundaries of forest lands.
For example, the eight Kolam families of Marutiguda hamlet near Pataguda in Indervelli mandal of Adilabad district who cannot come to grips with the fact that the trenches were dug right at the start of agriculture season making it difficult for them to reach their fields situated closeby.
Trenches built
“You have come to snatch away our lands,” a villager screamed at a couple of unidentified persons passing by who had stopped to look at the trench encircling the habitation, out of curiosity.
In Adilabad district alone, the department has dug trenches encompassing over over 1 lakh acres of ‘encroached’ forest land, of a total of 3.35 lakh acres of forest land, on which Adivasis are cultivating for various lengths of time. “We have done so to demarcate forest land boundaries and prevent further encroachments,” revealed District Forest Officer B. Prabhakar of the initiative.
According to well known Austrian Anthropologist Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf, the Kolams were adapted to shifting cultivation and took to ploughing only in the middle of last century. Not all the families of this PVTG, its population being around 40,000 as per the 2011 Census, own lands or enjoy rights to cultivate under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
Tribals vulnerable
“We have no place to go if we are uprooted like this,” pointed out Athram Sone Rao, a Kolam leader in Indervelli mandal.
“The government should formulate guidelines for us to go about evicting Adivasis, more so the PVTGs and it should appoint someone to liaise between the department and the encroachers so that they could be taken into confidence before they are subjected to uprooting from their base,” a forest officer suggested some measures to control situation going out of hands.
