The people of Pandrimati and Dudumaguda village of Kerimity GP in Kundra block (Koraput) refused the proposal of forest department to hand over their forest land in the name of forest protection. 50 village people from the above said village were together and decided for not to hand over their protected village forest to the forest department on 23rd June, 2018.
In the year 2015, the villagers were applied community forest land under Forest Right Act-2016. As per their application, the officials from revenue department & forest department visited the claimed forest land and demarked the applied forest land in 2017. Till date the villagers have not received the entitlement over the forest land and the present status of their application is also unknown to them.
Two months before the forest employees from Range office, Kundra were visited to Pandrimati and Dudumaguda village forest. They appreciated the people for their initiative to protect their village forest. They tried to motivate the villagers to get permission over their protected village forest land for their new project. They also brought some VSS members of Kerimity village for mobilize the villagers but they couldn’t success.
At the end, the people of two villages organized a meeting and finally decided, not to allow in their protected forest land to forest department at any cost. In this connection, the villagers collected fund and constructed a notice board and placed in the entrance of the forest. In the notice board they mentioned “We the people of Pandrimati and Dudumaguda village, this forest land has been protected and in the possession of the villager for a long time. At any cost we will not hand over it to the forest department until the final decision come under Forest Right Act”