Landgrabbers pose threat for Pakhal forest

Warangal Urban: While the State government plans to link the Pakhal lake with another lake Ramappa to get the water from the Devadula lift scheme is bringing cheers to the farmers of the Pakhal ayacut, the officials of the Forest Department are fearing of escalation in the cases of encroachment of the forest land.

The officials claim that thousands of acres of land had already been illegally occupied for cultivation by the locals with the alleged ‘support’ from the local politicos. The officials argue that the Pakhal was irrigating about 30,000 acres of land while the actual ayacut is only 18,000 acres. Spreading over three districts in Warangal Rural, Jayashankar Bhupalpally and Mahabubabad in 860 square kilometres, the Pakhal wildlife sanctuary consists of mixed forests, bamboo and teak forests.

However, thousands of acres of land has been occupied illegally by the locals.

Though the tribals are accused of encroaching upon the lands, non-tribals including government employees and politicians have occupied the lands posing a grave threat to the flora and fauna.

According to the officials, the tiger was spotted in the Pakhal sanctuary till 2009, but it had vanished from the forest since then. “No traces of the big cat has been found since then. The main reason for the disappearing of the tiger is diminishing prey population like deer which was caused by the indiscriminating felling of the trees,” said a senior forest official.

Sources said that the forest department are yet to assess land encroached upon in the Pakhal. However, they have been slapping notices on some of the encroachers. “But we are unable to evict them completely due to different reasons. The main reason is support by the local politicians to the land grabbers. Moreover, we are not getting the cooperation from police and revenue in the eviction,” rued the official.

Meanwhile, District Forest Officer (DFO) Warangal Rural K Purushotham said that they were trying to reclaim the forest land from the grabbers. “We are taking all steps to reclaim the land, but facing some hindrances in the process,” he added. However, it seems that there is a need to for proper survey of the ayacut of the Pakhal and fix the ayacut as per the records as it would help in checking the encroachments.