A ten-member team of the Andhra Pradesh Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (APRSASTF) led by its chief and Inspector General of Police (IGP) M. Kantha Rao on Sunday paid a visit to half a dozen villages of Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, as part of a study tour regarding the socio-economic conditions of the woodcutters' families.
During their interaction with the people of Sinthagampatti and Balaguri villages in Krishnagiri district, they were apprised that except for a negligible number of youth given to luxuries and criminal track record, the areas were free from the influence of red sanders smugglers. The villagers informed the task force IG that all the families below the poverty line were being provided with ration cards, housing schemes and education, providing them a congenial atmosphere for a normal living.
Professional work
Mr. Kantha Rao said that as part of the Task Force study, the teams were visiting various parts of the north-western districts of Tamil Nadu. "We have found that a majority of woodcutters invading the Seshachalam Hills in Kadapa and Chittoor districts are from the hilly districts of the TN, and the involvement of people from the plains is very sporadic. Our interaction with some of the families of the traditional woodcutters led to the revelation that cutting, dressing and carrying of heavy red sanders logs is a very professional work, and the woodcutters from the Jawadi Hills in Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts are skilled in this business," he said.
False impression
Task Force inspector G. Ashok Kumar observed that several of the woodcutters families of Krishnagiri district had given up their errands at Seshachalam Hills after the April 2015 encounter in which 20 woodcutters from Jawadi Hills were killed. Many of the educated families were under the impression that the youth of the north-western districts of the TN were going to Andhra Pradesh to earn their livelihood in a legal manner by working in factories and agriculture farms. It was only through the media they had come to know that many families were involved in the red sanders smuggling, more due to the lure for a luxurious life, the official said.