Hyderabad, April 20 -- Congress leaders have repeatedly assured the adivasis that forest officials will not disturb them tilling their podu lands. However, the land conflict between the Gothikoyas and forest officials in Telangana doesn't seem to have an end in sight.

It has been over a month since 25 Gothikoya families in Ramanakkapeta hamlet in Aswaraopeta mandal in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district were dispossessed of their lands, after the forest officials laid trenches, preventing the adivasis from entering 180 acres of farmland.

For decades, several attempts to reclaim the forest lands from the possession of Gothikoyas were made by successive governments of undivided Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Uike Suresh, a hamlet resident, tell...