Podu land for tribals a sensitive affair
On Friday, the Telangana government will distribute title deeds to 1.5 lakh tribals for podu lands covering over four lakh acres of forest area. For decades, tribals and even non-tribals have been encroaching upon the forests—shifting cultivation from one land parcel to the other season to season. The government has received close to four lakh claims over 12 lakh acres of forest land. From this alone, one can imagine how much of the forest cover has been denuded. However, it is a highly sensitive issue as lakhs of families depend on forest land cultivation, irrespective of their legal status.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had promised during his first stint in power to confer legal rights on tribals over podu lands. It has taken a long time for obvious reasons. As per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, legal rights can be granted only to tribals cultivating forest land before December 13, 2005. It seems the government will grant the rights as per the RoFR Act. The state cannot give ownership to the tribals occupying forest land after the cut-off date as the issue then falls under the Centre’s domain. Telangana should not go beyond and promise to pressure the Centre to legalise the rest of the unauthorised cultivation. In any case, when climate change increasingly casts its long shadow, it is unlikely that the Centre will tinker with the Act and open Pandora’s Box. This begs the question of why KCR is going ahead at this juncture. It appears he has an eye on the upcoming elections. He has also decided to extend the Rythu Bandhu (investment subsidy) scheme to the beneficiaries, perhaps to blunt the opposition onslaught.
To be fair to the government, it has paid special attention to increasing green cover through the Haritha Haram programme. According to the India State of Forest Report, Telangana’s forest cover increased from 19,854 sq km in 2015 to 21,214 sq km in 2021. This is good, but the devil is in the details. For instance, the Kawal Tiger Reserve forest area shrank by 5%. As per studies, forests absorb 7.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. As such, we cannot afford deforestation as it worsens climate change and increases man-animal conflict. The tribals must be provided with alternative means of livelihood, and migrations from bordering areas must stop to prevent the loss of forest cover.