State Tops In Keeping Podu Applications Pending: Centre

Hyderabad: Telangana has the third highest forest land area under podu pattas or 7.29 lakh acres. But behind this status lies an unspoken fact that the state ranks first in the number of podu patta claims kept ‘pending’ in India.

Telangana has a whopping 3,29,367 pod claims under the pending category as on December 31, 2025, according to data provided to the Lok Sabha on claims under the Forest Rights Act, under which certain categories of forest dwellers can file claims and get the right to use forest land for their livelihood. This is almost half of the total 6,55,249 claims received by the Telangana government as on the same date, according to the Union. tribal welfare ministry.

While the submission of claims is not a continuous process (the last round of podu demands was held during the previous BRS regime in Telangana, where fresh claims were flooded in 2021 and pattas were issued in 2023), the Forest Rights Act and its rules do not prescribe any time limit for disposal of applications, according to the ministry.

Forest officials in the state say the tribal welfare department, an agency that effectively proves the legitimacy of occupation of forest land before granting a patta, has taken shelter under this domain even as the tribal welfare department has refused to take final decision on pending claims, which has resulted in applicants seen as forest land encroachers continuing to occupy forest plots illegally.

Of the total 2,31,456 claims approved in two patta regulatory cycles as on December 31, 2025 (first in 2008 after the enactment of the Forest Rights Act, which fixed December 31, 2005 as the deadline for occupation, and again in 2023 when the state government called for fresh applications using the same deadline), 1,51,146 were claims that received approval. nod at the second slice.

In the last census conducted two years ago, the total encroached forest area, including the area granted patta in the first round in 2008, was 7,29,654 acres, but as per the total demands received, including those sought in 2021, a total of 13,18,507 acres were found under encroachment, as this was the extent of forest land claimed by all the applicants. This raises the possibility that at least 5.88 lakh acres of forest land is technically under illegal occupation, the forest department has failed to evict encroachers and the tribal welfare department is reluctant to deny or approve pending claims.

As you may remember, the printing of podu patta in 2023 also caused various controversies; One of these involved forest officials in districts being told to send facsimiles of signatures to be printed in podu patta passbooks.

The directive was issued following the reluctance of some authorities to approve claims they deemed suspicious, untrue, or related to new, rushed rapes after the government called for new applications.

The issue also reached the Central Jurisdiction Committee of the Supreme Court, which in October 2025 issued notices to the tribal welfare department seeking petitioner-wise application data, which were yet to be submitted to the CEC as of February 12, 2026, according to sources.