Indiramma Houses Inside Kawal Tiger Reserve

Hyderabad: The apparent overenthusiasm of some officials vested with the responsibility of the Telangana government’s flagship Indiramma houses programme for the poor, has landed the scheme’s implementation in hot water because of the officials allowing construction of these houses inside the core and buffer areas of the Kawal Tiger Reserve in the state.

As per laws governing forest protection and tiger reserves in the country, no permanent constructions can be allowed inside a tiger reserve, but construction of 166 Indiramma houses was given the go-ahead by officials inside the Kawal Tiger Reserve.

Even worse, for reasons best known to them, the officials even allowed such houses inside Podu lands, for which beneficiaries were given pattas under the ROFR Act. However, the Podu land pattas, as per law, are meant to be used only for agricultural activities that can generate income for the families of the beneficiaries and cannot be used for any other purposes.

Incidentally, for the first time in a decade, the Kawal Tiger Reserve, which was bereft of tigers, appears to have been chosen as home by two tigresses, one in Tiryani and another in Luxettipet ranges of the reserve. “These two - who we are calling the Tiryani female, and Luxettipet female for now - have stayed put for the past three months and we hope that this will be the beginning of Kawal’s return to being a true tiger reserve,” a senior state wildlife department official said.

“And if a male tiger decides to go into their current territories, we may even have the tigresses breeding," an official from the tiger reserve said.

According to sources, officials in-charge of the Indiramma housing programmes were cautioned earlier against permitting and grounding the houses inside the Kawal Tiger Reserve or in Podu lands. But now with 166 houses permitted and many of these having been grounded, the tiger reserve officials have taken up the matter with the district revenue authorities, and filed a case for violations inside the tiger reserve and on Podu lands, following which construction work has been halted temporarily.

It is learnt that in Devunigudem range of the tiger reserve, trees were felled to create clear areas for construction of the houses. Of the 38 such Indiramma houses sanctioned for this patch of clear felled forest land, construction started on 14 houses, sources said.

“But there is intense pressure from politicians at the ground level to allow the houses to be built. It is a great scheme for the poor but district authorities must provide revenue land for the landless for the Indiramma houses. If the forest department stays quiet and turns a blind eye, then all of us in the department will be answerable to the Supreme Court which we are certain will not take kindly to the tiger reserve area being violated,” an official from the reserve said.