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While releasing the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections earlier this month, the party’s president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said that they have effectively fulfilled their promises of issuing pattas to the Adivasi podu land cultivators. “Besides issuing podu pattas, we have revoked the police cases against those who were involved in clashes during the issue. They have also been given the benefit of Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bhima schemes,” KCR said.
Podu is a traditional form of shifting cultivation, a slash and burn method of agriculture practised by tribals like Gutti Koyas, Kolamis, Gonds etc on forest land. Under the Recognition of Forest Rights Act (Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006), RoFR in short, the Telangana government has been giving land deeds or pattas to tribals and non-tribals up to four acres. As per the RoFR Act in 2005 all tribals holding forest land before December 2005 are eligible to exercise forest rights. The non-tribals are eligible for this if they prove that they have been cultivating forest land for the past 75 years.
The government began the process of distributing 11.5 lakh acres of land to podu land cultivators in June this year. Launching the distribution of pattas, the CM had announced withdrawing cases against the tribals who were involved in the conflict over the podu lands.
In its 2018 manifesto, the BRS (TRS then) had promised to resolve the podu land issue. “Land disputes of tribals and non-tribals in forest areas will be amicably addressed and ownership rights will be conferred. Disputes with reference to Podu Lands will also be addressed as early as possible. They will be given benefits on par with other farmers,” the party promised.
The contentious podu land issue led to several violent clashes in the state between the forest officers and the claimants of the forest land, including the murder of a Forest Range Officer (FRO) last year. Challamalla Srinivasa Rao, the FRO of Chandrugonda, Bhadradri Kothagudem district was killed by two accused from the Gutti Koya community. The officer was killed for allegedly preventing the Gutti Koyas of a tribal hamlet under Bendalapadu gram panchayat from grazing cattle on the forest land.
The government’s afforestation programme Telanganaku Haritha Haram, aimed at increasing the forest cover, is often in conflict with the distribution of podu lands, leading to tensions between both the forest officers and the podu land claimants.
Following the murder of Forest Range Officer Srinivasa Rao, there were calls of “driving out” the Gutti Koyas from the forest. Forest officials said that the Gutti Koya community “infiltrated” into Telangana from the neighbouring Chhattisgarh state. Gutti Koyas are an Adivasi community but they are not recognised as Scheduled Tribes in Telangana.
Distribution of podu land faced objections from forest conservationists who allege that the government is regularising “encroached lands after 2005. “There are loopholes in RoFR Act 2005. As per the Act there is no cut off date to receive applications. As there is no sunset clause in the Act, the state government can conduct Gram Sabhas any number of times. The second loophole in the Act is how to decide and demarcate encroachments before and after the cut off date of December 2005,” says a retired forest official.
Under RoFR Act 2005, all beneficiaries have to be identified in Gram Sabha and eligibility will be decided by village elders. The forest officer participating in Gram sabhas can only raise objections about the eligibility of any beneficiary, but the ultimate decision will be taken by Gram Sabhas. “To avoid misuse of the Act, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has issued instructions to identify and demarcate forest encroachments prior to 2005 and after 2005 with the help of Geographic Information System (GIS) timeline mapping. But under political pressure, the Tribal Welfare Department negated the instructions issued by MoEF on GIS mapping of encroachments before and after 2005,” the former bureaucrat says. This allows village elders to decide who becomes eligible for land possession.
Data provided by forest officials shows a total of 294694 hectares of forest area under encroachment. The migration of Gutti Koyas from Chhattisgarh is cited as a problem of encroachment. Large population of Gutti Koyas have settled in erstwhile Warangal and Khammam districts.
While the BRS government ticks off the promise of granting pattas to podu land cultivators, the Congress party says that there are more than 12 lakh acres of forest land under podu cultivation and the BRS hasn’t done enough.
Podu land always remained an election issue. Before the 2009 Assembly election, YS Rajasekhar Reddy as the Chief Minister had distributed over three lakh acres of forest land to the eligible tribals. “In 2006 we had identified that 12 lakh acres of forest land was under podu cultivation. We had carried out surveys and the pattas were ready to be distributed but due to the elections, the distribution of land had to be stopped,” recalled Bellam Naik Tejavath, vice chairman of the Adivasi Congress.
Naik alleges that the BRS government has no sincerity in resolving the issue. “If they had any intent to resolve it, they would have distributed all the 12 lakh acres of land,” he said.
Officials from the Tribal Welfare department said they have distributed 7.14 lakh acres of land so far. TNM could not access the data regarding the number of applicants and the rejections.
“The details of the number of applicants, rejections and land distribution cannot be revealed at this stage,” said Sarveshwar, Additional Director, Tribal Welfare Department.