In small corner in Telangana, 2 lakh people shift to Andhra Pradesh

Khammam: Residents in 337 of the 535 villages situated in the seven mandals of Bhadrachalam and Paloncha divisions in Khammam will become part of Andhra Pradesh when they wake up on Monday.

While the rest of the district is celebrating the birth of Telangana, as many as 2.07 lakh people, mostly tribals, living in VR Puram, Kunavaram, Chintoor, Velairpadu, Kukunoor, Bhadrachalam (excluding the temple town) and Burgampadu (excluding 12 revenue villages) mandals are in a state of disbelief.

These seven mandals are spread across 2.92 lakh hectares and face submergence from the Polavaram dam. Besides this, the district will also stand to lose 31,733 hectares of forests to AP.

With this, Khammam district is in danger of losing its status of having the highest forest cover with 7.41 lakh hectares being portioned out of its total geographical area of 15.8 lakh hectares.

The villages that would be transferred to AP are Bhadrachalam: 108, Chintoor: 126, Kunavaram: 76, VR Puram: 75, Kukunoor: 71, Velairpadu: 70 and Burgampadu, 9.