Andhra Pradesh - Kurnool   

Protecting forests a Herculian task

Special Correspondent

Forest officials unaware of mining lease given to some in Bethamcharla, Dhone and Panyam areas

KURNOOL: As real estate industry is booming in the State, officials of the Forest Department are under pressure to protect reserve forest tracts. There may not be much land grabbing in the core forest area, but protecting the land in scrub forest or degraded forest zones is a big challenge for them.

Staff crunch

According to an estimate, reserve forest exists on 3.50 lakh hectare in Kurnool. But the pressure is on one lakh hectare outside Nallamala forest. While the Revenue Department has not updated the records regularly, the Forest Department has no staff to monitor human activity in a remote area.

In Bethamcharla, Dhone and Panyam areas, certain individuals secured lease for mining from the revenue authorities based on unrevised land records. The forest officials had no knowledge of the mining activity till the advanced stage due to staff shortage. Each forest guard is entrusted an area of nearly 4,000 hectares.

Also, the officials are insisting upon employing global positioning system (GPS) so that land boundaries are recorded in latitudes and longitudes rather than depending on field measurement books of the Revenue Department.

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