Burhanpur (Madhya Pradesh): Over 500 tribals of Ghagharla under Nepanagar assembly constituency of Burhanpur district are protesting against illegal felling of forests and encroachment on forest land of Nepanagar at collector’s office.
Accusing the government of selling the forest, they said that after the encroachers clear the green cover, government would allocate the land to industrialists. This is the reason why encroachers have been allowed to fell trees with impunity.
Villagers, who reached collector office on Wednesday afternoon, spent the entire night on the premises under the open sky. They have arrived at the district headquarters fully prepared for a week-long agitation. They have also brought clothes to sleep and wear along with grain and utensils to cook food.
Failing to meet administrative officials, they prepared khichdi as dinner. The tribals surrounded the main gate of collectorate thus blocking the traffic.
The villagers said that the agitation would continue till forest encroachers and tree fellers were not removed by the administration.
Jagrut Adivasi Dalit Sangathan has been active for protection of forests. Under the leadership of organisation head Madhuri Ben, this time the villagers reached the district headquarters for a full and final fight.
District collector Bhavya Mital told reporters that she stayed in the office till late Wednesday night to talk to tribals but they refused. She said that ASP and district panchayat CEO too were present with her. She claimed that the organisation was keen on gathering crowd. “How can we talk to crowd,” she said.
“Five people from tribals can come to office and we can talk peacefully, but they don’t want to talk. All departments are engaged in forest conservation. The people in the crowd should ponder on what interest the protest will serve if no talks are held,” she added.
Collector Bhavya Mittal added, “Till now all demands of the tribal organization were related to lease. This time they want to stop deforestation. However, the timing raises questions as both the forest and police have taken action recently in Dhulkot and Neemsethi. After this many encroachers have moved out. Our drone failed to find any encroacher in the area.”
On getting application in English recently, collector said, “There will be verification of pattas by the sub-division committee. Tribals are not educated enough to write application in English and it is being investigated by the sub-division level committee”.
