The long-felt need for a joint operation by the forest and police departments is setting in to tackle the menace of red sander smuggling, which has become rampant in the district.
While only the logs or the vehicles used for smuggling were recovered in the past, the forest sleuths have of late been arresting labourers employed by the ‘invisible bigwigs' to cut and ferry the lumber. Taking the crackdown to a new high, the officials of the two departments were closeted at the Mamandur forest guesthouse near here on Thursday to chalk out the details in forming the set up.
Superintendents of Police J. Prabhakara Rao (Tirupati Urban), Kranti Rana Tata (Chittoor) and Chief Conservator of Forest (Tirupati Wildlife Management Circle) P.V. Chalapathi Rao discussed the roadmap to put an end to the indiscriminate felling and transportation of logs, which have a huge demand abroad.
Mr. Tata said 45 cases had been booked against smugglers so far and the process of identifying bigwigs was on. Armed Reserved policemen had been pressed into service for the first time to help the forest guards. With Chennai being the main centre for the smuggling racket, from where the logs cross the shores, Mr. Tata observed that the local taskforce would work in tandem with the Chennai police and the forest officials. The district revenue officials would also help in the exercise.
PD Act
Mr. Prabhakara Rao noted that regular combing taken up in the forest fringe areas too yielded results, adding that Preventive Detention Act would be slapped on those involved. “A joint control room will be set up soon,” he said. Brushing aside political influence, he said pleas to leave the smugglers would be ignored.
Insider complicity
Mr. Chalapathi Rao pointed out that 600 persons had been arrested so far and that effective coordination would be ensured to improve surveillance. To a query on insider support in the department, he minced no words while saying that the staff would be treated on par with smugglers, if their complicity was proved.
Divisional Forest Officers Chakrapani and Bharat Kumar and Sub-DFO Ramakrishna were also present at the meeting.
