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<p id="1"><strong>Hyderabad: </strong>Are Guttikoyas, the migrant tribals from Chhattisgarh, just forest encroachers in the name of podu cultivation or are they victims of police-Maoist conflict in Bastar? While there are conflicting views on this, forest land issue in Telangana has huge political connotations.</p>
<p id="2">Speaking at the funeral of forest range officer Ch Srinivasa Rao at Earlapudi village in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, forest minister A Indrakaran Reddy said: &ldquo;Guttikoya are not Telangana natives. They are migrants and are involved in encroachment of forest. We will take action against them.&rdquo; Errabodu Guttikoya hamlet of Bendalapadu gram panchayat, where the FRO was killed, was established with migrants from Chhattisgarh.</p>
<p>Bhadradri-Kothagudem superintendent of police G Vineet told <strong>TOI</strong>, &ldquo;Majority of Guttikoyas have no opinion on Maoists. If they had some alignment for or against Maoists, why would they leave Chhattisgarh and come here. All the migrations happened before 2014. Their only agenda is to feed their families by cultivating forest land.&rdquo; Foresters say &lsquo;podu&rsquo; is a misnomer as there is no shifting cultivation now, and it&rsquo;s encroachment. While previous migrations of Guttikoyas and felling of forests were due to Salwa Judum, the current spurt of encroachments are due to the promise of granting rights over land.</p>
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<p>Telangana State Forest Officers&rsquo; Association general secretary Raja Raman Reddy said: &ldquo;There is no podu now. It&rsquo;s all encroachment.&rdquo; Retired IFS official P Raghuveer said &ldquo;It is high time forest department stop this tamasha of distributing forest land to encroachers in the guise of Forest Rights Act (FRA). In 2008, eligible claims were settled.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>Tiger conservation expert of Hyticos Imran Siddique said: &ldquo;Koyas are natives of northern Telangana and Agency areas of AP, while Gutti Koyas/Gotti Koyas migrated. The Gotti Koya migants cleared thick forests and initiated practice of podu, brining them into conflict with forest officials. In some cases, Adivasi groups of Telangana &amp; Andhra Pradesh got into conflict with Gotti Koyas.&rdquo;</p>
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<p id="2">However, since the scale of migration was huge 1.5 lakh of them having moved into AP &amp; Telangana, politicians decided to appease them by promising pattas over forest tracts and settle on using FRA and legal provisions.</p>
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Guttikoyas victims of Maoist purge from Bastar or podu land squatters

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