HYDERABAD: After acquiring more than 33,000 acres of fertile agricultural land in 29 capital region villages for the construction of capital Amaravati in 2015 through the land pooling scheme, the State government is now planning to denotify 30,000 acres of forest land -- 15,000 acres in Kondapalli Reserve Forest area and 15,000 acres Kotturu-Tadepalli stretch. With the initial plans to de-notify the 15,000 acres of land in Kondapalli reserve forest area failed to get the Union government’s approval, the State government has sought permission to denotify forest lands in Adavi Nekkalam and other 15,000 acres of land in Kondapalli.
The 15,000 acres of land of the Forest department in Kotturu Tadepalli stretch falls under Vijayawada rural. The hillocks in Adavi Nekkalam village in Agiripalli mandal supply raw materials for the construction activity in Krishna and surrounding districts. The State government has restarted its efforts to get at least 15,000 acres of land in Kondapalli reserve forest area out of the 25,000 acres of land in Ibrahimpatnam mandal, Kanchikacharla, G Konduru, and A Konduru mandals.
“It was believed the de-notified lands will be used for mining activities. Later it came to know that lands will be allotted to private companies and other spiritual organisations like Isha Foundation, which expressed interest in setting up their organisations in Andhra Pradesh” said RV Prasad, Vijayawada Forest Range Officer. What really concerned is, these lands, once notified, will witness huge construction activities and the green cover in the district will come down from seven per cent to four.