Task force foils smuggling of red sanders; recovers 58 logs

Tirupati: In a major operation in the early hours on Sunday, Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) foiled the smuggling of a big quantity of red sanders from Bakarapeta forest and recovered 58 Super and A grade logs that have high demand in international market from the forest area, 35 km from here.

A 10-member task force party during their regular combing in Bakarapeta forests found the movement of 10-15 smugglers who were carrying red sanders logs on their heads and proceeding towards the Ghat Road.

When the combing party asked them to surrender, they fled away throwing the logs they were carrying. Even as the task force personnel searching in the area, they spotted another batch of smugglers, on the other side of Ghat Road. 

After keeping three members to guard the logs left behind by the smugglers, seven personnel of the task force combing party went after the smugglers on other side of the road.

However, the smugglers who were in a big number of about 60 pelted stones and some attacked with machete forcing the task force to open fire in the air with the pump action gun two rounds and the smugglers took to their heels. The subsequent search in the forest led to the recovery of a total of 58 logs.

To their surprise, the task force personnel found in the bags left behind by the smugglers the body parts of a wild animals revealing that the smugglers are also not sparing the animals in forests and hunting them for their food in the deep forest. 

RSASTF IG Dr M Kantha Rao who reached the forest area later said that the smugglers turned a major threat not only to the red sanders but also to the rare wild animals in the Seshachalam forest. 

He said that legs of gray langur, skin of a monkey and tail of a giant squirrel were recovered from the bags of the smuggler. The Tamil smugglers believe that keeping the body parts of the animal they killed in their homes keep away the evil spirit, Rao explained. 

IG patted the task force personnel for showing presence of mind and cleverly handling huge number of attacking smugglers and forcing them to flee.