Thirsty animals fall prey to poachers

Poaching incidents and forest animals coming out of the forests in search of drinking water are being reported these days as summer is fast approaching in the Adilabad district of Telangana.

Poachers are targeting the forest animals entering into the fringes of the villages in search of water. 

Drinking water sources in the forests are gradually drying up and this resulted in forest animals coming out of the forests in search of drinking water.       

It is common practice for the poachers that they set up live electric wires and also nets near water bodies targeting the animals which were landed up in the traps or were electrocuted or killed by poachers.  

‘Forest officials arrested three persons who killed Sambar in the Dharmaraopet forests in Kasipet mandal on January15. Villagers of the Dharmaraopet chased the Sambar which came out of the nearby forests in search of drinking water and was killed.        

On the other hand, a Bison came out of forests and entered into the agriculture fields in Tandur mandal headquarters two days ago. The villagers informed the forest officials who successfully drove the animal into the forests close to Dwaraka Kasipet.

The lifting of sand from the rivulets and streams located in the forests is also contributing to dipping of the capacity of water recharge of streams and rivulets. 

State relaxes water rule for Dalit bastis

To give a boost to the Dalit Basti Scheme, the state government has relaxed the norms regarding ‘availability of water sources’ (sufficient ground water) which was must for land purchase under the scheme.

Few acres of land so far distributed to the Dalits under this scheme. The revenue officials should purchase the lands only after confirming that there was enough ground water to cultivate the land to be distributed to the Dalits.

Till date, the department of Ground Water would conduct tests on the lands to be purchased for the Dalit Basti scheme and thus many lands were rejected due to lack of ground water resulting from drought conditions in the last two years.

Collector M. Jagan Mohan said that state government has given permission to the district to purchase land without taking the ground water table into consideration as most of the crops in the district are rain fed and ground water table doesn’t make much difference in cultivating these crops.

There had been a slowdown in the implementation of the Dalit Basti Scheme for a while  as there some irregularities in purchasing land in Mancherial and Sirpur (T) Assembly Constituencies, said the collector, adding that some of the people had hiked the land price to Rs 6 lakh per acre, which was actually purchased for Rs 3 land acre, before selling to the government.

So far, 673 acre purchased at Rs 22.8 crore, has been distributed to 230 beneficiaries under Dalit Basti in the district.      

It has come to light that some government land was also purchased for the scheme as sellers and officials had colluded at some places.

Officials concerned had rejected hundreds of acres of land identified at various places based on reports given by Ground Water department, stating that there was no availability of ground water sources. Now 2,000 acre of land has become available for purchase and distribution under Dalit Basti in the Adilabad district.

The Ground Water department had cleared 1,026 acre by the end of August for purchase in the district. Most land was purchased in Jainad, Tasmi , Talamadugu, Bela, Kagaznagar, Bajarhatnoor, Kubheer, Kotapalli and Sarangapoor mandals in the district.

Dalit leaders say that state government’s decision to relaxed norms on availability of ground water to purchase lands may not be serve the real purpose of the scheme aimed to distribute 3 acre of cultivable land and taking the advantage of this officials may purchase barren lands for Dalits at cheaper prices and hike the prices on paper.    

Telangana SC Cooperative Finance Corporation vice- chairman B. Jayaraj inspected the lands purchased in Kubheer mandal for Dalit Basti and found them not useful for cultivation and also found irregularities in purchasing those lands.