The Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force and forest personnel in joint operations seized 37 logs valued over Rs. 2 crore in the international market and nabbed 13 woodcutters, both from Tamil Nadu and local villages here, at four different locations in Chandragiri mandal near Tirupati in the small hours of Thursday.
According to Task Force DIG M. Kantha Rao, the combing party detected the movement of woodcutters in large numbers between Bhakarapet and Nagapatla at the foot of Seshachalam Hills in the wee hours of Thursday (2.00 am).
The combing party nabbed nine woodcutters, including two from Tamil Nadu and seven from local villages in Chandragiri mandal, at a forest location close to Rangampeta, 18 km from Tirupati and seized red sanders logs. Simultaneously, two more TN woodcutters were nabbed along with logs at the road point close to a private college between Srinivasa Mangapuram and Rangampeta.
In the third incident, the combing personnel seized an SUV containing red sanders logs at Moolapalle village near Bhimavaram Valley. In the fourth incident, two TN woodcutters were nabbed at a forest location at Bhakarapeta ghat section, while a big group of woodcutters had escaped from the scene. All the four incidents took place within a radius of 8 km.
The Divisional Forest Officer (Tirupati wildlife) T.V. Subba Reddy said that during the last one month, there was a big flood of woodcutters from Tamil Nadu. "They are entering the forests at night under cover of darkness, and also exiting in the dark. Our rough estimate is that on an average over a hundred people are trespassing into the forests every night," he said.
