Telangana GO on Reserve Forest Put on Hold

Monday’s decision follows widespread apprehensions among people from more than 330 villages that fall in the proposed reserve that the new status for the reserve forest areas they live in, will affect their lives and livelihoods.

Forest and environment minister Konda Surekha, following Monday’s orders, said the Congress government would always stand with Adivasis and others who have made their homes in forest areas. The decision follows Surekha, and panchayat raj and rural development minister Danasari ‘Seethakka’ Anasuya, and the district in-charge minister Jupally Krishna Rao meeting several times to discuss the issue and seeking feedback on GO 49 from MLAs and others in the district.

The feedback was presented to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy who took a decision to keep the orders declaring formation of the conservation reserve in abeyance, Surekha said in a statement.

GO 49 was issued on May 30 this year declaring 49,288.48 hectares, or just over 1492.88 sq km, as a conservation reserve with an aim to afford better protection to tiger corridor forest areas in KB Asifabad district.

With this decision to keep the recently declared Komaram Bheem conservation reserve on the backburner, at least till the local body elections are over later this year, conservation of tigers, for the first time, appears to have emerged as a vital election issue in Telangana, at least as far as KB Asifabad district is concerned.

Meanwhile, sources said that the Congress government, sources said, “is not responsible for the extent, or the areas included” in the conservation reserve, work for which was taken up and completed during the previous BRS led government. “The Congress government is alive to the concerns among the people and in view of the widespread reservations over the conservation reserve status to the corridor forest areas, the decision was taken to keep G.O. 49 on hold,” the sources explained.

In the orders issued in May, among the reasons cited for declaring the conservation reserve was the need for better protection for the tiger corridor forest areas connecting the Kawal tiger reserve in Telangana with the central Indian tiger landscape in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

The corridor forest areas have over the past decade, as per G.O. 49, recorded presence of four adult tigers and three cubs as per the 2022 All-India Tiger Estimation, and that since 2015, three tigresses that made parts of the corridor forests their territories, gave birth to total of 17 cubs in the last eight years.

Reacting to the decision, Imran Siddiqui, co-founder of Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society, called it decision a setback for wild tigers in Telangana.

“This landscape connects vital corridors for tiger movement between Kawal, Tadoba and Indravati – and its protection is essential. But conservation cannot succeed without the support of the people who have long lived in these forests,” Siddiqui, a senior field conservationist, told Deccan Chronicle

“The solution lies not in rolling back protection, but in engaging sincerely with tribal communities to co-create models that secure both livelihoods and landscapes," Siddiqui said.

Komaram Bheem Conservation Reserve

GO No. 49 issued by environment and forests department on May 30, forming the conservation reserve

Orders issued on July 21, keeping GO 49 in abeyance

Conservation reserve was to cover 49,288.48 hectares, or just over 1492.88 sq km

Proposal covered forest areas in Asifabad, Kagaznagar forest divisions and included Asifabad, Karameri, Rebbena, Tiryani, Kagaznagar, Sirpur, Karjelly, Bejjur, Penchikalpet forest ranges

339 villages/habitations were in the proposed conservation reserve area