Adilabad: PVTGs (Vulnerable Primitive Tribal Group) Kolams including women, staged a dharna with the items they make with bamboo such as mats and baskets in front of the collectorate on Monday alleging that forest officials were not allowing them into the forests.
They demanded that state government provide jobs to their educated youth in the forest department if it wants to protect the forests.
The Kolams say that they depend on forests for the collection of minor forest produce and bamboo to make items to meet both ends. They fear that state government may throw them out of their villages located on the fringes of the forests in the name of protection of the forest.
Kolam Seva Sangham district president Kodapa Sonerao said that protection of the forest was not possible without involving local Adivasis and added that it was the Adivasis who really protect the forests.
The Kolam leader regretted that they were losing their livelihood as they were not allowed into the forests. He demanded that state government withdraw new acts which were brought to protect the forest but are being used by officials to harass them. Kolam Sangham leader Kinaka Suresh, Kumra Raju, and others were present.
