A 55-year-old man and his son were arrested for chopping 16 red sanders trees in Alayamangalam reserve forest (RF) near Chetpet town in Tiruvannamalai on Thursday.
Forest officials said that along with his son M. Mohanraj, 20, K. Muniyandi, 55, had trespassed into the RF several times in the past few months to checkout the red sanders trees in the area. During the trespassing, they had found that surveillance by the beat forest officials like the forest watcher and the forester had been low in the area.
The chopped trees were kept around 500 metres from the Chetpet Main Road for convenient transportation. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Forest officials said, taking advantage of the low surveillance, the duo had roped in 10-15 wood cutters from Kerala for the chopping, most of which was done in a day. “Muniyandi is a previous offender with cases registered against him in Chittoor and Polur for illegal felling of trees in RFs. Special forest teams have been set up to nab at least 8-10 lumberjacks, who are from Kerala,” a senior forest official told The Hindu.
Of the total 460 red sanders in the RF, which was planted by the forest department nearly four decades ago as part of an afforestation plan, 16 were cut from the ground level. The chopped trees were kept around 500 metres from the Chetpet Main Road for convenient transportation. Around three tonnes of wooden logs were recovered from their hideouts in Krishnapuram near Chetpet town by a forest team led by S. Murugan, forest range officer in the Polur range.
Around three tonnes of wooden logs were recovered from their hideouts in Krishnapuram near Chetpet town. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
At present, the Polur forest range has 12,500 hectares of forest land covering its five RFs. Among them, Alayamangalam RF, where the theft occurred, has the largest plantation of red sanders, covering at least 20 hectares in the total 1,500 hectares of the RF. Alayamangalam RF is also home for teak, sal wood, tamarind, neem and other native species of trees.
Initial inquiry revealed that samples from the loot were send to Chennai and Bengaluru for the other smugglers to assess its quality. Unlike the red sanders variety in the Chittoor RFs, the tree in other RFs especially in the Jawadhu Hills are of poorer quality in terms of its colour, shine and texture, forest officials said.
Cases have been filed and special teams have been formed to nab others involved in the crime, forest officials said.
