An irate group of tribal people allegedly tied a forest beat officer to a tree and thrashed him when he along with two other field staff visited Chintaguppa reserve forest area in Dummugudem mandal to supervise pre-plantation activities on Monday.
The incident sparked commotion for some time at Chintaguppa, a remote tribal village in the border mandal, on Monday afternoon.
Trouble broke out when a group of tribal people, claiming themselves as “podu cultivators”, allegedly obstructed the forest staff from taking up preparatory works for a plantation drive under the “Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA),” sources said.
When the forest staff tried to go ahead with their task, the angry tribal people mainly comprising women detained one of them and tied him to a tree.
They reportedly warned him against taking up plantation drive in what they claimed as their “podu lands”, before letting him off, sources added.
Sources in the forest department said that trenches were already dug up and final arrangements were under way to take up plantation drive at the Chintaguppa forest land under the CAMPA.
Efforts are under way to retrieve all the identified encroached forest lands and take up afforestation activities in Bhadrachalam division, sources said.
Based on a complaint by the Chintaguppa forest beat officer Rajesh, the Dummugudem police registered cases against more than ten villagers of Chintaguppa under different Sections of the IPC on various charges like obstructing the forest staff from discharging their designated duties and trying to attack them.
A video of the Chintaguppa incident has gone viral on social media following which the higher ups initiated a detailed inquiry into the incident to identify the persons involved in the alleged attack on the forest beat officer.
