FRO killed allegedly by GuttiKoya tribals in BhadradriKothagudem district

FRO killed allegedly by GuttiKoya tribals in BhadradriKothagudem district

Subject :Environment

Context:

• A Forest Range Officer (FRO) named Challamalla Srinivas Rao, 42, was brutally killed allegedly by a group of GuttiKoya Adivasis with axes and sickles over a “podu land” issue in Errabodu forest area in Chandrugonda mandal of Telangana’s BhadradriKothagudem district on Tuesday.

Why tribals attacked the FRO-

• Srinivas Rao along with his staff went to Bendalapadu tribal habitation to prevent an alleged attempt by a group of local tribal people to remove saplings in a plantation raised by the Forest department in Errabodu forest area.
• The migrant tribals, who claimed themselves as ‘podu cultivators’, allegedly chased and killed  the FRO.

What is Podu?

• Podu is a traditional system of cultivation used by tribes in India, whereby different areas of jungle forest are cleared by burning each year to provide land for crops.
• The word comes from the Telugu language.
• Podu is a form of shifting agriculture using slash-and-burn methods.

Other forms of Shifting cultivation practiced in India-

About the ‘Podu’ Land Issue

• The Errabodu incident comes at a time when a survey of “podu lands” is underway to find a permanent solution to the ‘podu lands’ issue as per the provisions of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
• Podu lands are the lands tilled by tribal people in forests.
• Telangana government has red-flagged encroachment of forests by non-tribals, who are indulging in the practice of shifting agriculture (podu). 
• Several political leaders have raised the issues of shifting agriculture and deforestation wherein encroachers clear a portion of land to raise crops one season and move to a different location next season, thereby clearing large areas of forests.

About  GuttiKoya tribe tribe-

• Koya are an Indian tribal community found in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha.
• Koyas call themselves Koitur in their dialect.
• The Koyas speak the Koya language, also known as Koya basha, which is a Dravidian language related to Gondi.
• Koyas are commonly referred to as Koi, Koyalu, Koyollu, KoyaDoralu, DoralaSattam, etc.
• Koya tribes can be further divided into Koya, DoliKoya, Gutta Koya or GottiKoya,KammaraKoya, MusaraKoya, Oddi Koya, PattidiKoya, RashaKoya, LingadhariKoya (ordinary), KottuKoya, BhineKoya, Raja Koya, etc

Displacement threat-

• They are faceing the new threats of development and conflicts.
• In the absence of land and access to a forest, the Koyas depend on wage labour in farm lands.
• The scarcity of these jobs lead to malnutrition of children and instances of anemia in women.
• The Andhra Pradesh state government proposed Polavaram Project is posing a serious threat of displacement of 170,275 Koyas of the tribal population and more than 276 villages in the Khammam district of Bhadrachalam, Palwancha divisions.