Adilabad: Forest officials have issued notices to adivasi farmers to vacate the forest lands in three days and stop cultivation of forest lands in Dharmajipet village in Utnoor.
Kolam adivasis staged a protest in front of the ITDA Utnoor office and appealed to the officials to intervene and restrain the forest staff from stopping them from cultivating their lands for which they have pattas.
Elsewhere villagers of Dhanthanpalli also met collector Divya Devarajan and complained about the forest officials who were stopping them from cultivating their lands.
Adilabad district Kolam Seva Sangham president Kodapa Sonerao said, “Forest officials are threatening the adivasis and asking us to vacate the lands that we have been cultivating for a long time despite having pattas of the lands. The forest department have hatched a conspiracy to wipe out Dharmajipet village by stopping cultivation of lands in the name of reserved forest.”
It may be recalled, that it was in 1995 that forest staff burnt the huts and crops of adivasi farmers in Dharmajipet on charges that they were living and cultivating forest lands in reserve forests. Officials had asked the adivasis to vacate the village. However, with the intervention of High Court, the village had resettled there itself.
Recently, forest officials demolished huts in Kolam-Gondi village and sent the villagers along with their belongings to the Vempalli forest depot in Kagaznagar on the charges that the adivasis were living in the reserved forest and cultivating forest lands. Forest staff also demolished huts in Markaguda in Utnoor mandal on the charges that they were living in a reserved forest.
