Eaten by encroachment, only six per cent forest cover left in Warangal
WARANGAL: Encroachment has been one of the main reasons for forest loss for a long time. The best example is Warangal Rural district, which has just six per cent forest cover, of which a major chunk is under encroachment. According to District Forest Officer K Purushotham, the district has a total forest area of 15,113.94 hectares, of which 5,516.88 hectares is under encroachment. The encroachment is increasing every passing year.
Interestingly, of the total forest area, Pakal alone has 12,231.41 hectares. The forest officials who are already dealing with a Herculean task of transforming the six per cent forest cover to 33 per cent, are forced to deal with encroachers too. In fact, in many cases the government itself uses forest land for various projects making it difficult for forest officials to protect them.
The district forest officials on Tuesday organised a stakeholder consultation as part of preparing First Decade document - Telangana 2024 initiative - to take suggestions from them to improve forest coverage.
Major threat to forest
Conservator of Forests, Warangal region, MJ Akbar said land encroachment is a major threat to forests. “Despite stringent laws, forest land encroachment is going unabated. This has to stop. Any amount of afforestation would be a futile until people stop encroaching forest lands,” he said adding that the situation in Warangal Rural district is alarming as a major chunk of forest lands are under encroachment.
“Stakeholders should also take initiative to stop encroachment. We are doing our job. People should also educate encroachers on the disadvantages of losing forest,” he said.“There is an acute shortage of staff in the department affecting our work. We need people’s help to save our forests,” he added.
‘Planting saplings not a solution’
DFO Purushotham appreciated the initiative of farmers of Darur village in Vikarabad district, who have started surrendering forest land encroached by them. “We want people of our district to follow such practice to save forest,” he said. A majority of stakeholder felt that the forest department should be kept away from politicians as they exert pressure on officials to deviate from rules causing huge loss to forest.
They also wanted the government to provide alternative livelihood options to tribals involved in podu cultivation so that they do not cut trees in forest. To stop cattle entering forest, the stakeholder wanted the government to create separate grazing fields so that cattle could be provided fodder.