By Express News Service
TIRUPATI: The sleuths of Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force seized 218 red sanders logs and nabbed one smuggler at two different places in Chittoor district on Monday. The sleuths also seized a tipper truck, which was parked near Bhupal Nagar in Karakambadi to transport these logs. According to Task Force SP Ravi Shankar, acting on a tip-off that over 150 smugglers have started from Tamil Nadu to fell the trees in Seshachalam forest area, they formed special teams to nab them.
“While one of the Task Force teams headed by RSI Vijaya Narasimhulu was on a combing operation near Bhupal Nagar, they found a tipper truck parked near Seshachalam forest. On suspicion, the Task Force team checked the registration number and found it to be fake. Based on this, the team entered the forest to nab the smugglers,” the SP said.
Ravi Shankar said that on the way to the forest, the teams found some smugglers carrying 145 red sanders logs. We tried to nab them but they gave a slip. With the help of sniffer dogs, we located the dumping point and seized the logs,” he said.
In the second incident, the officials of reserve forest department seized 73 red sanders logs and nabbed a smuggler at Chakrala Banda area near Karakambadi forest range. According to DFO M Nagarjuna Reddy, the arrested smuggler was identified as Govinda Rajulu of Salem in Tamil Nadu.
During a combing operation, a team headed by Forest Range Officer Subbarayudu spotted 70 smugglers carrying logs on their head. The forest officials tried to nab the smugglers, but they fled the spot leaving behind the red sanders logs.
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