A clash on Sunday between members of two groups of villages Sirliguda and Kusumguda under the Umarkote police limits over the issue of ploughing forest land left 18 people injured, four of them seriously, who were admitted to the Umarkote CHC.
The incident took place in morning on the disputed land situated in the middle of the two villages. Police reached the spot and detained 13 persons of both villages.
local leaders of opposition parties blamed the Revenue and Forest Department for the incident. They alleged that the district administration was aware of the dispute over farming on forestland since long but didn’t take any step to resolve the issue amicably.
After the clash, rival villagers filed complaints against each other at the police station. The police registered a case and took up investigation, said SDPO Gopinath Monipatro.
Although this tribals-dominated Nabarangpur district is designated as a leftwing Extremism-affected zone, the potential for conflict was more related to forestland right involving tribals. A conflict is going on between tribals, who have forest resources under their possession, and non-tribals. Umarkote and Raighar of the district have been in news with several casualties taking place on each side. A burning example was the incident that happened in last year at village Baunsabeda near Telegan under Umerkote block when a group clash had taken an ugly shape with two persons being killed on the spot and one being critically injured.