The Red Sanders Anti Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF), established in 2015 to safeguard the red sandalwood that is endemic to Seshachalam forest, achieved significant progress in operations, both in forest as well as plain areas, in 2022 and curtailed both inter-State and intra-State smuggling of the logs.
The task force strategically opened new operational teams in 2021, which led to a rise in the number of combing operations to 1,396 in 2022 from 1,111 in 2021.
In 2022, the task force booked 180 cases as against 106 in 2021. But the number of persons arrested came down to 281 as against the 360 in 2021. The arrested includes 70 from Tamil Nadu, 197 from Andhra Pradesh and five from Karnataka. Redsanders logs weighing 49.967 metric tonnes were seized this year compared to 35.9 metric tonnes in 2021.
The task force has planned a few initiatives, including increasing surveillance in the forest, to check smuggling activities, Superintendent of Police (RSASTF) K. Chakravarthy said.
“We are contemplating to install checkpost scanners that can see through the contents of the passing vehicles. Such an intervention is necessary on the highways leading to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We have forwarded the proposal to the higher authorities,” Mr. Chakravarthy told The Hindu.
Dog squad
Besides, the task force is getting ready to involve dog squad again in the combing operations after a brief gap due to the pandemic. “While one of the three dogs died recently, we are currently upskilling the other two,” Mr. Chakravarthy added.
The Tirupati-headquartered task force is currently headed by Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Kurnool range) and under the operational monitoring of a Superintendent of Police.
