Indore: As we take baby steps towards ‘Unlock’ and adapt to a new way of life, villagers seem to have found a better and easier way to earn a living. Flocking together large groups of villagers especially led by women are encroaching on forest land.
In the last 17 days, i.e. the month of July, four such mass encroachments have been reported by the forest department in Indore division. During lockdown, 17 such encroachments were reported. This year has reported the highest ever encroachments especially mass encroachments in Indore division, according to forest department officials.
The idea of encroachments is an alternate way of earning income for some villagers, explained an officer.
Taking over forest land in mass gatherings secures villagers from specific investigation and charges. Another trend seen in all the four encroachments till now shows that women are taking lead.
As shared by forest officials, in some cases women are pushed in the forefront for discussions and fights even if men are present in the encroachment drive. “Women are mostly being pushed in the forefront in such encroachments, and at times women even fight and accuse forest officials of 'misbehaving' and infringing on 'women's rights'," a ranger said, adding that all this is done to intimidate the forest officials.
In the latest mass encroachment that was reported by the forest department on Friday, the large group of about 100 encroached forest land in Jetpura village near Kampel.
Trees are our children, stop chopping!
“What else can we do, the forest projects are not in place yet and plus, they are not permanent employment,” the group of women explained their stance.
The forest officials argued that panchayat is required to provide requisite employment to all those people, who put in their memo. “We will write down the memo for you if needed, but cutting trees like this will not feed you and your family,” a forest official told the villagers.
But the women did not seem convinced and felt going to panchayat is unnecessary. Hence, their reason quoting lack of employment was questionable for forest officers.
In an attempt to cajole villagers, forest officials have now started explaining women using emotions.
“These trees are like our children, chopping off and killing our children will not feed your family, it is not right,” a ranger told to women, in a bid to convince them from cutting trees.
Encroachments are plotted, greed of ‘Patta’
Another recent case that was reported was in village Pathan Pipalya where 200 women of the village attempted to encroach forest land. The women were attempting to encroach 5 hectare forest land, each would have been able to secure about 250 square metres. This piece of land would not be enough for farming as such.
“The idea of encroaching land is mostly not for farming, it is just for illegally taking over forest land and securing ‘patta’,” sub divisional forest officer Sandeep Gautam said. Patta is a type of land deed issued by the government to an individual or organisation to an approved cultivator with a land revenue exemption.
“As we have observed, most of these mass encroachment drives are instigated by some people due to various issues and political conflicts,” Gautam said.
He added that two such people, who were plotting these encroachment drives were identified and a case was registered against them.
