Pattadars remove trees in some country in the Devanoor Forest area in Dharmasagar Mandal in the Hanamkond district. | Photo Credit: By Agreement
The district collector, who will direct the forest department to prevent the possession of 43.38 hectares of Pattadars in the parts of the Devanoor Forest, the only main pulmonary space for the whole Hanamkond district, caused strong reactions of environmental activists and others.
Environmentalists who express concerns about this Directive claim that allowing cultivation or other activities on Patta would damage the biodiversity because the soil lies inside the forest area and suggests that the government either allocates the same extent of land or provides Pattadars a suitable replacement.
They claimed that Pattas was issued illegally for many individuals, and demanded a detailed retirement probe before announced the forest block Inuparathigutta (Devanoor Forest Area) Les (RF). The forest area extends across Dharmasagar, Vair, Bheemadevarapally and Elllikturty Mandala and is rich in biological diversity and organizes several species of flora and fauna.
The P. Pravinya Collector Directive of 27 March 2025 noted that certain figures of the survey (213, 214, 215 and 216) from the village of Mupparam and 403 and 404 Devanoor villages in Dharmasagar Mandal were private lands allegedly occupied by forest departments.
The collector who quoted the verification of land records, including Sethwar, Pahani and proposals for reserve forests (RF), stated that these land did not fall within the proposed forest block Inuparathigutta and asked the forest department to release 43.38 acres, with the exception of 18.17 acres in survey No. 213.
The letter also referred to the representation of Ghanpur Mla Kadiyam Srihari and demanded an intervention in this matter. This invited criticism from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Former MLA T. Rajaiah claimed that Mr. Srihar and his family were trying to interfere with forest land, the accusation of Mr. Srihar on Tuesday denied at a press conference in Hanamkon, and offered to prove guilty.
Vana Seva (VSS), NGOs led by Pollapally Veerabhadra Rao and former DFO K. Purushotham, claimed that the country has remained under forest for decades and that Pattadars never had. They also criticized the reported felling of trees in response to order. They demand that the entire 3,950 hectare forest block Inuparathigutta be notified as a reserve forest under Section 4 of the 1967 Forest Act as a reserve Forest (RF) to protect it from land grabs.
Published – April 8, 2025 06:13
