HYDERABAD: In the last one month there have been at least four incidents of forest officials being assaulted by a mob while performing their duties in preventing encroachment of forest lands in Kamareddy district alone in the Banswada and Gandhari forest divisions.
On Saturday, a single forest beat officer overseeing work at Yellandu crossroads in Kothagudem had to face a mob of hundreds of people led by the son of the local MLA to protest against the construction of wall for protection of an urban forest park from encroachment.
Where as, at a public meeting organized in Eturnagaram by a political party, the villagers were told to assault forest officials if they try to remove their farms from encroached forest lands and few days back in Adilabad hundreds of people descended in front of the Collector’s office to protest actions of forest officials to remove encroachment from forest lands.
The incident at Kagaznagar wherein the Forest Range Officer, Ch Anitha, came under assault by a Zilla Parishad Vice Chairman Koneru Krishna and his supporters for taking up afforestation on an encroached piece of degraded forest land, is not a one-off incident.
Across Telangana there are various sensitive places where the forest officials regularly face intimidation, are assaulted or face the threat of coming under attack from locals.
This threat will increase in next couple of months as with the monsoon arrived, illegal clearing of forests by locals for practising cultivation will increase.
Moreover, forest officials will also undertake plantation of saplings as part of ‘Telangana ku Haritha Haram’.
As Express spoke to District Forest Officers (DFOs) from some of the worst-affected forest divisions with high rate of forest encroachment, the common complaint of forest officials has been support from local elected representatives for those who encroach forests and the spreading of false information that ownership of encroached forests will be legally transferred to whoever cultivates the area under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act. “The forest department staff are not feeling safe due to regular incidents of assault and intimidation by villagers whenever attempts are made by us at preventing encroachment of forest lands.
The local elected representatives humiliate and threaten us when we take action against cultivation on forest lands. With support from politicians, the locals feel emboldened to attack us”, confides a District Forest Officer. Last year, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, PK Jha had written a letter to the Special Chief Secretary to Environment and Forests, Telangana in which he blamed regular statements by MLAs, MPs which would mean that encroachers of forest lands will not be evicted which leads to obstruction of duties of forest officials in retrieving forest lands and taking up plantations as part of Haritha Haram.