JAJPUR: It came as a shock for residents of Ekatala under Rasulpur tehsil when they were recently served encroachment notice for a portion of government land in their village which they were voluntarily taking care of by planting trees. Interestingly, the local administration slapped the notice to around 30 families after some of them reached out to authorities last month and complained that miscreants are damaging trees planted by them on the land.
The villagers allege the real encroachers are being shielded while poor families protecting the land from trespassers, are being made scapegoats. Sources said six months back, around 50 families in the village had volunteered to plant trees on over 6 acres of Gochar kisam land which was lying unused and reportedly being misused by people. Villagers say, a handful of unscrupulous people of the village used to lift soil illegally from the land and sell them in the black market.
To stop the illegal activity, these villagers, mostly tribals and scheduled castes, planted fruit-bearing trees like mango, coconut, cashew, jack fruit and guava and even leveled the land manually. They purchased fruit saplings to plant and even erected plastic nets around the trees for protection. They bore all expenses and have also been guarding the plantation. But since last month, they have been alleging that miscreants who were earlier lifting soil from the land are now resorting to damaging the plants.
Villagers under the leadership of Odisha Krushak Mahasangha (OKM) vice president and environmentalist Gopinath Pati said 6 acres of gochar land was lying unused and miscreants were selling soil from it. So some of the villagers planted trees from their own money to prevent land degradation but instead of acknowledging their efforts, the administration slapped encroachment notice on them. Reaching out to the Collector, the villagers threatened to go to court if action is not taken against the tehsildar. Commenting on the issue, Collector Chakravarti Singh Rathore said he will look into the matter and take necessary steps.