FGG has urged political parties in Telangana not to make cultivation of ‘Podu’ an election issue. , File photo | photo credit: GN Rao
Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has urged political parties and advocates of ‘Podu’ cultivation in Telangana not to make it an election issue in the larger interest of the environment and the state.
On Thursday, Chief Minister K. In a letter addressed to Chandrasekhar Rao, FGG secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy said some political parties are advocating regularization of podu land keeping in mind the upcoming assembly elections. He urged the Chief Minister to protect forests and not to regularize podu cultivation, except in genuine cases, which increased after 2005.
The forum suggested that the state government should jointly afforest about 12 lakh acres of forest land in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam districts, which is under illegal occupation, including podu cultivation, and provide rights. Collecting the produce and marketing it to the evicted people.
Citing evidence from satellite (GIS) imagery of forests of 2005 and 2022, it is abundantly clear that most of the 1.2 million acres of podu were cultivated after 2005. So far, the government had regularized podu cultivation in three to six lakh acres. Different opportunities and assigned it to the tribals. “However, in the guise of tribals, non-tribals are also encroaching on forests now,” Mr. Reddy said.
History of Podu
Stating that podu cultivation, the illegal occupation of forest land, felling of trees and bringing it under cultivation, is rampant in Telangana, Mr Reddy said that government land with good tree growth was brought under the law in the early 1930s. The reserved forest was declared after due process. , But, there was tribal unrest against this process as their right to cultivate forest land was restricted.
To help such tenants, about 50,000 acres of forest land was dereserved by the Hyderabad government in the 1940s and leased out to tribals. Encroachment and illegal cultivation in reserve forests continued even after independence and a large number of migrants from Maharashtra entered Telangana areas, felled forests and started illegal cultivation.
As governments were unable to control illegal cultivation of forest land, it was decided to regularize podu cultivation to the extent of 2.5 lakh acres with 1964 as the cut-off date. It was expected that this would stop further encroachment of forest land. However, with the tacit support of Naxalites and some political parties, podu cultivation continued.
To help tribals encroaching on reserved forest land, a law was enacted by Parliament in 2006 – the Recognition of Forest Rights Act – and all encroachments of about 3 lakh acres as of December 13, 2005 were regularized by 2008 , But the encroachment did not stop.
In 2019, three judges of the Supreme Court directed state governments to evict encroachers of forest land whose claims were rejected by the competent authority in 2008. Later, the order was suspended and the matter is still pending in the apex court. If 12 lakh acres are regularised, there may be no forest land in the next 10 years, apprehensions Mr Reddy.