Hope for Tirumala Township fizzles

BY VL Srinivasan

Published on April 5

Hyderabad: The AP Government's efforts to declare the temple town of Tirumala as a ``Township of religious importance'' by including vast tracts of forest lands received a jolt with the State Forest Department turning down the
proposal.
The State Government will now have to get clearances from the National Board for Wildlife, Supreme Court and also the Union Ministry of Environment & Forests for the purpose.
Amid raging controversy over the alleged propagation of Christianity in Tirumala and Tirupati, Endowments Minister J C Diwakar Reddy, in the presence of Sri Visweswara Theertha Swamiji of Pejawar Mutt, declared in July last year the State Government's willingness to form Tirumala township by including 322.68 sq km of the entire seven hills comprising vast forest tract. Even Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) also requested the State Government to enlarge the area and submitted a proposal to this effect. At present, the total area being administered by TTD is 10.33 square miles.
Subsequently, the Revenue officials prepared a draft notification proposing to declare forest land to the extent of 32,267.51 hectares as part of the Tirumala township under Section 5 (1) of AP Panchayat Raj Act and
requested the Forest department to concur the same.
The Forest department, however, said that it was not in a position to concur with the revenue officials' proposal for declaring the reserved forest land as ``Tirumala Township of religious importance'' unless prior permission
and legal opinion from the Central Government was obtained as the proposed area included a zoo park, national park and a wildlife sanctuary. ``Seeking concurrence of the Centre is a must as forests and wildlife come under
concurrent list,'' official sources told Express.
Officials pointed out that no forest area can be diverted for any non-forestry purpose, which includes religious purposes, without prior approval of the Central Government. ``As such, no religious activities can be taken up in the forest area by any person without prior approval of the Central Government and the TTD's objective is served even without bringing these areas under the proposed township,'' the officials said.
They also wondered what legal rights will accrue to the TTD on such forest lands in the event of declaring the above forest lands as township.
Moreover, the Revenue department did not indicate whether the proposed forest area will be required to be transferred in favour of TTD or will it continue to remain in the possession of the Forest department.