1 week Ago By Ardhra Nair
with photos / exclusive Nanded: Waghdari, a village with 300 residents in Kinwat taluka of Nanded district in Maharashtra, has no presence on the country's revenue map even after 77 years of independence. "Tell us where we belong," is the villagers' refrain. They live deep in the teak forests of the Satmala range along the Telangana border and claim Telangana abandoned them and Maharashtra never accepted them.
Until the last election, they would trek for over two hours, braving the elements and animal attacks, to cast their votes in Jaldhara, the nearest village. But on Nov 20, they will vote for the first time in a polling booth in their village, with renewed hope for recognition and long-pending land rights from govt. Kavali Meghana, sub-divisional officer, for Kinwat taluka which falls under Kinwat assembly constituency, said that the Election Commission of India approved a polling station in Waghdari considering the challenging hilly terrain and dense forest surrounding it.
"Waghdari has 190 eligible voters and they now have a polling station in their village," she added. But village resident Datta Bhawale is angry speaking about their hardships. "For four generations, we have called this place our home, but we have nothing to show for it from govt.
Our gram panchayat is 35km away, and we walk 10km to vote in any election. The nearest tarred road is three hours away by walk." The villagers said they don't have land ownership papers and no drinking water pipeline.
One said, "When we sought our land documents, they told us that we are not on the (revenue) map. We told them to tell us if we were from Telangana or Maharashtra. Finally, a govt official said we belonged to Maharashtra.
It means nothing if we don't have basic rights." Land records like a 7/12 extract will make them eligible for govt support. "Without these papers, we can't get a road, crop insurance, borewells or subsidies," Shankar Gaikwad, another villager, said.
He added that their farm produce barely sustains them. "The monsoon is unpredictable, wild animals destroy our crops, and on the rare occasion when we get a good yield, transporting it over rough terrain with no road, drains any small profit we make. We grow just enough to survive most of the time," Gaikwad said.
District collector Abhijit Raut made efforts to send the proposal to the settlement commissioner and director of land records in Pune. Meghana said the village was not on the revenue map for several reasons. "Earlier, it was attached to Adilabad district in Telangana during the Nizamshahi period.
The proposal to include Waghdari in the revenue map has been sent to govt. Last year, we conducted measurements in the village and sent the proposal to Pune. We are hopeful that within the next 4-5 months, the residents will receive what they're entitled to from govt bodies.
" First ZP school in 1992 Teacher Sidheshwar Vishwanath is the only established link to govt. He lives in Islampur 16km away and he rides his two-wheeler to Jaldhara and then walks for 2 to 3 hours either way to reach seven students in this single-room, asbestos-sheet roofed school. After Std IV, children travel long distances to reach a bigger school, and many, especially girls, drop out because of the challenging commute.
Vishwanath said people live with the constant threat of leopards, bears, and even tigers. "Just this morning, I came across a bear. I waited for it to leave before I continued.
People here don't want big projects. They just need roads and water. Requests for funds to improve the school's building are ignored," Sidheshwar said.
Tough for women Women bear the brunt of hardships from home births to the daily walk for drinking water. For Maya Kale, who dropped out after Std XI, the journey to school was fraught with danger. "It was a long, and unsafe walk, and my parents worried about me, so they got me married.
I have a son, and I hope he can study and find a job," she added. Senior citizen Saraswati Varvate said most women give birth at home, and in emergencies, are carried on makeshift stretchers to Jaldhara—a two and a half hour journey through difficult terrain to reach the nearest road. "Our only water source is a stream one km away.
No one comes here to campaign, and we don't know why we vote. But we do it, hoping for change. But whoever wins, we know we're on our own," she said.
Box Lost in transition during reorganisation of states According to Karthikeyan S, previous project officer and assistant collector at ITDP, Kinwat, after the states' reorganisation, the village came to Maharashtra from a united Andhra Pradesh However, during this transition, no official map of the village was created, though people lived here In 1984-85, Waghdari was first visited by then collector Swadeep Ksatriya who initiated the process of its official recognition Later, the process to get them documents like voter cards and Aadhaar, was taken up by sub-divisional magistrates Abhinav Goel and Kirthi Kiran Pujar The addresses on the voter ID cards of Waghdari villagers have the names of Kupti and Jaldhara villages A team in Kinwat visited Adilabad and Hyderabad to collect the records of Waghdari, but it did not yield much A comprehensive survey using drones was conducted, and the village's map was drawn and a proposal submitted to govt in February 2024 Once the map is approved, the 7/12 land ownership documents for villagers can be issued When included in the revenue map, Waghdari will be the largest village in Nanded district, covering an area of 3,084 hectares, officials said.
