The Chittoor district police authorities have decided to crack the whip on the Tamil Nadu wood-cutters employed to chop the precious red sanders trees by taking the message across the State borders. Starting on July 3, there will be a series of awareness programmes in pockets identified to be the epicentre of such operations.
It has been amply proved that the smugglers are increasingly employing wood-cutters from Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu. The scrawny, yet muscular youth of the Javvadu Hills and surrounding areas are known for their agility and weight-carrying capacity, which are traits considered essential for such risky operations on hilly terrains.
Serious efforts are on to track down the wood-cutters and arrest their inflow into the district. In fact, there is no letup in the arrival of Tamil youth to Chittoor, notwithstanding the recent encounters and the spate of arrests.
It was in this backdrop that the need to spread the message at the originating point was identified.
“The impoverished wood-cutters merely see it as a source of income, but do not know the life-threatening situation here. The gullible ones agree to chop trees for a living and land in trouble. It is our idea to spread the message on the risk involved to the mothers and wives of the prospective wood-cutters, so that they can be kept at bay”, says Superintendent of Police (Chittoor) P.H.D. Ramakrishna.
In a bid to create fear psychosis, the department is readying posters in Tamil, depicting the taskforce policemen in action and images of the arrested smugglers put behind the bars. In fact, it was the replication of a similar operation taken up in Chittoor district, where posters were prominently displayed in villages, asking the public to inform the police about the movement of woodcutters.
By touching the ‘emotional angle’, Mr. Ramakrishna seeks to wean away as many unemployed youths from taking up this wood-cutting job, which is of late considered a ‘greener pasture’.
