Bhat Yasir
The tribal people who have been living in the Rakh Brah area of Anantnag’s Shangus tehsil since several generations have been asked to vacate land for a demolition drive that would be carried out by the Revenue Department within 15 days.
According to an official document written in Urdu drafted on 29 September, the residents have been asked the vacate the “illegaly encroached” land within 15 days. The Revenue Department has issued a public notice for the demolition of the structures within the premises of the village.
The tribal activists called the move unfair on part of the administration, and appealed to the Lieutenant Governor for intervention.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, the some of the tribals said that the residents of Rakh Brah area of Shangus, Anantnag had been asked through notice (got on 22-Sep-2021) to vacate land within fifteen days.
“We do not live illegally here, the government has settled us down,” a local resident, Khalid Chowdhary told The Kashmiriyat, adding ”We want the administration to allot this land to us.”
Chowdhary said that they do not know of any other home than this. “The forest has always been our home,” Khalid said, adding, “Our houses are located here.
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Our father and grandfathers lived here, so we want this land to be permanently allotted to us.”
Meanwhile, Tribal Activist Chowdhary Irshad Khatana, took to Twitter and said, “What kind of role of administration is this? On one side the government is saying that it is implementing the Forest Right Act and other side the already allotted land is being snatched.”
Talking to The Kashmiriyat and calling the administration hypocritical, Chowdhary said that the administration had a “dual face,” and told one thing while it was doing another.
The residents of Rakh Brah wrote an application to the DC Anantnag, which reads “The Rakhs and Farm land is situated at village Rakhi Brah, Ranipora, Brah, Kawarigam and Khull Chochar of tehsil Shangus, which is the possession of farmers from 1947 and the department of Rakh and Farms (Agriculture) was taking 1/4 share of produce (crops) from farmers in 1947.”
Further, they have said in the application that “The farmers were authorised by the department of Rakhs and Farms to construct residential houses in the said land time to time which include 550 residential houses, 300 cowsheds, 11 Mosques, 03 Govt. Middle schools, 01 pump house building, 01 panchayat building, 02 Eid Gah, 04 Graveyards, 02 Public parks, 07 Anganwadi (ICDS centres), 03 Darul Uloom and other infrastructures which mostly consists of poor Gujjar and Bakerwal schedule Tribes.”
The tribals said that the Deputy Commissioner had assured them that no action or demolition will be done until verification is completed. They also added, “No team has visited the area after completion of fifteen days.”
Tehsildar Shangus told The Kashmiriyat “I have prepared a factual report of the matter and will submit to DC Anantnag by Monday. The future course of action will be decided by his office.”
The series of demolition and eviction drives in the forest lands begun last year in November when a joint team of the officers of Pahalgam Development Authority, Wildlife, Forest, Revenue, Police, and Pahalgam Development Authority on 7th November launched an anti-encroachment drive at several areas of Pahalgam of Anantnag and retrieved 110 Kanals of land.
On visiting these three areas in Pahalgam, the locals told The Kashmiriyat that the officials along with a team of more than hundred people stormed into the village after threatening the villagers to not resist the demolition move.
“They threatened us that they will get us arrested if we even try to resist or speak against the measure,” a local told The Kashmiriyat. The fear that is visible in the local indigenous community comes from a series of events that have happened in the recent past.