A team of Red Sanders Anti-smuggling Task Force (RSASTF), led by its head and DIG M. Kantha Rao, undertook a two-day whirlwind visit of various hamlets at the forest fringe areas in Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu on June 17 and 18.
Forest and police officials of the district accompanied the Task Force team, guiding them in their interaction with the families of red sanders woodcutters in Naviambattu and Kaniambattu clusters in the Amerthi range.
Task Force senior inspector G. Ashok Kumar told the media on Sunday that the inspections revealed that the lifestyle of woodcutters’ families underwent a sea change during the last couple of years. They were living in double-storied buildings with costly furniture and their children were studying in convent schools.
“During our interaction, the family members confessed to quick earnings by way of red sanders felling in Seshachalam, working for the meistries [middlemen],” he said. The official said that the families observed that though they wanted to shun the vocation of felling red sanders in Seshachalam, they were coerced by middlemen working for the smuggling mafia.
As some of the families had taken huge amounts as advances several years ago, the youth found no option to repay the loans but through entering the Seshachalam hills. The Task force will hold meetings with the police and forest officials of T.N. districts to chalk out an action plan to create awareness among the woodcutters’ families to give up felling of red sanders.
