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179 arrested, 307 logs seized
As many as 179 smugglers mostly from Tamil Nadu were arrested and 307 logs were seized in the major operation, jointly carried out by the Red Sanders Anti-smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) and forest department in Vanipenta forest range of GV Satram adjoining Lankamala forest in Kadapa district on Thursday.
​Kadapa: As many as 179 smugglers mostly from Tamil Nadu were arrested and 307 logs were seized in the major operation, jointly carried out by the Red Sanders Anti-smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) and forest department in Vanipenta forest range of GV Satram adjoining Lankamala forest in Kadapa district on Thursday.
Following the information culled in the sustained interrogation of 15 smugglers from Tamil Nadu and a local smuggler on Wednesday, the task force along with forest staff launched an intensive combing operation in Vanipenta forest range under Proddatur forest division leading to the arrest of as many as 179 smugglers from various places in the forest and forest fringe areas.
Surprisingly, the searching teams stumbled upon the heaps of red sander logs which were kept in various places readily for transportation and also a dump in Rollabodu forest area of Sidhout forest range, leading to a huge catch of 307 red sanders logs in total in the day long operation.
It was Forest Section Officer (FSO) Gurappa, who first apprehended a batch of 50 Tamil smugglers with the support of task force personnel. In the continuing operation taken out with reinforcement of forest and task force personnel, the combing parties were able to nab more and more smugglers and also recover red sanders logs from different places in the forests.
Task force RSI Ali Basha stationed in Kadapa also joined the combing along with another batch of forest staff led by FRO Ramana Reddy, which ultimately resulted in 125 more smugglers nabbed later.
Task Force chief IGP M Kantha Rao along with DCF (Task Force) from Tirupati reached Kadapa and later the forest area from where the red sander logs were recovered and also inspected the seized logs and vehicles at Kahazipeta forest office.
Kantha Rao was all praise for the task force and forest staff for their meticulous and swift operation resulting in the arrest of big number of smugglers from Tamil Nadu. He said the perseverance, intelligent and tactics of the personnel foiled the attempt of smugglers.
Preliminary enquiries revealed that the arrested local smuggler Ramakrishna from GV Satram was an old offender and was responsible for facilitating the Tamil smuggler entering the forest for felling the trees which was carried in Rollapadu deep forests and also made the transportation for illegal smuggling of logs which was ultimately failed.
The details of the 179 arrested smugglers include Salem 104, Villupuram 62, Krishnagiri 7, Tiruvannamalai 2 (Tamil Nadu), Kolar (Karnataka) 1 and the remaining locals.
