Kawal Tiger Reserve offers livelihood to villagers through NREGS

The Forest department has been providing livelihood to residents of around 15 forest fringe villages, who were affected by the creation of Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR)

Mancherial: In a novel gesture, the Forest department has been providing livelihood to residents of around 15 forest fringe villages, who were affected by the creation of Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR), by engaging them for digging trenches and removing silt from percolation tanks in the facility through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the last three years.

Creation of the KTR has adversely impacted livelihood of dwellers of certain settlements situated in Jannaram mandal and surrounding areas. Traditionally, the residents used to get some employment by depending on the wild. For instance, they were gathering forest minor products and were selling those to make ends meet. But ever since the creation of the forest reserve in 2012, they are not allowed to enter the forests.

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“Special permission was taken to carry out works in the reserve under MGNREGS. Residents of 16 villages in Jannaram mandal have been engaged in different jobs in the reserve with the help of the residents. A total of 3.79 lakh man days were created, spending Rs.8 crore so far,” Jannaram Forest Divisional Officer Sirpurapu Madhav Rao told ‘Telangana Today.’

Residents of Chintaguda, Devuniguda, Indanpalli, Jannaram, Kamanpalli, Kalamadugu, Kawal, Kistapur, Kothapet, Lingaiahpalli, Mahamudbad, Malyal, Murimadugu, Ponkal, Thapallapur and Venkatapur villages are hiring auto-rickshaws to reach the worksite, travelling around 15 kilometres in a single trip. They are happy to find employment in the reserve through the Forest department.

Durgam Rajavva, a resident of Kamanpalli said: “I am happy to be able to generate income by being engaged in the works through MGNREGS. I am earning somewhere between Rs.200-300 per day.” Dwellers of these villages said they had not expected the forest to offer a livelihood after being converted into a reserve.

Forest officials said the engagement of dwellers of forest fringe villages helped them gel with locals and to effectively take up conservation of wild animals. They attributed considerable rise in groundwater level to the recharging of rainwater caused by the trenches and de-siltation of percolation tanks.

“In the past, we were filling up tanks and saucer pits with water by hiring private tankers in order to quench the thirst of animals every summer. But now, water can be found in the tanks and saucer pits anytime,” Rao said.