Podu cultivators\'s land issue remains unsettled for decades in Konigerla areas

KHAMMAM: The three habitations in Konigerla — Ellannanagar, Vikramnagar and Ramanarasaiahnagar — that were populated with podu cultivators since three decades ago, are marked as ‘tense habitations’ while confrontations often erupted between these farmers and forest officials.

Of the 11,000 acres in Gubbagurthi reserve forests in Konigerla mandal, 3,000 acres were occupied by podu farmers. The government had given pattas under forest rights to farmers over 2,000 acres there.

Forest officials and the people of Ramanarasaiahnagar and Vikramnagar used to get engage in fights as farmers tried to encroach into more forest lands. They however remained quiet for the past two years after many of them joined the ruling party. With this, they managed to get the benefits of various welfare schemes from the government.

In the case of Ellannanagar, the habitation is in the hands of the CPI (ML) New Democracy. K Ramulu, resident of the village, said forest officials had filed as many as 307 cases against them for doing podu cultivation. This apart, forest officials are objecting to farmers doing this cultivation in the other areas that are under the reserve forest.

The forest department is not touching the 150 areas where farmers are doing this cultivation since long, he said.

Former MPTC of Konigerla Ramesh Babu said, “The forest department did not give pattas for the lands that are in the hands of podu farmers. It should solve this issue first.”

The people from Nelakondapalli, Mudigonda and Sattupalli mandals started coming to the region from 1985. They set up huts and settled down there. Later, these areas were made part of the other gram panchayats.

Ramanarasaiahnagar came into being as a separate panchayat. The forest land is fertile for podu and the farmers are raising cotton in these lands.

Forest range officer of Gubbagurthi forest range Radhika said, “We started treating the chowdu (a type of soil where the density of the salts, especially sodium, is more) lands in the reserve forests for plantation purpose.”

The growth of habitations caused more stress on the cultivable lands. As the price of the lands in the region touched crores, the people from urban areas turned to the forest lands in areas adjoining Khammam town.

K. Venkanna, former sarpanch of Ramanarasaiahnagar, said, “This is not a big issue for the government to solve forever. But there is no effort yet in this direction.”