Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments are yet to identify vanish Bhoodan lands that are worth 7200 Crore. Landlords in erstwhile AP have donated 1.95 lakh acres during the Bhoodan Movement in 1965 by the persuasion of Acharya Vinoba Bhave.
The movement began from Pochampally now in Yadadri district and later its name has changed to Bhoodan Pochampally. Back then, about 1.12 lakh acres of land was distributed to 42,199 families of whom 12,832 were tribals. The rest stayed with the Bhoodan Board.
A majority of the Bhoodan lands that have gone ‘missing’ are in United Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad, Nalgonda, Khammam and Nizamabad districts in Telangana and they exist in all the districts of AP and Telangana. To be precise, those lands were encroached and the governments have made no attempt to recover them.
