1 held; 14 red sanders logs recovered

Tirupati: The RSASTF combing party recovered 14 red sanders logs including roots from Srivarimettu forest area, behind Zoo Park on Tuesday morning.

A smuggler identified as Annamalai from Tamil Nadu was caught while 13 others managed to flee from the task force after leaving behind the logs they were brought from the forests to outside.

RSASTF-led by RSI Vasu which took up combing on Monday evening found the movement of smugglers after they reached Eethagunda and Sachinodibanda areas in the forest on Tuesday morning. The task force combing party divided into three intensified the search and found the smugglers running away carrying logs on their heads.

When the task force was nearing the smugglers, they left behind the logs and managed to flee. In the hot chase that followed Annamalai from Tamil Nadu was caught. In the following search, 12 logs were recovered and two more from the bushes that were found by a sniffer dog that was pressed into service to trace the escaped smugglers.

In the interrogation, Annamalai revealed that a group for 14 smugglers entered the forest to cut down red sanders trees for smuggling. He also disclosed that the smugglers started to cut the roots also for smuggling as there is only few red sanders trees left in the forest only in the deep woods difficult to reach.

Task Force DSP Venkatraman also reached forest area and monitoring the search operation which is still going on to track down the escaped smugglers. RSI Vasu said that the task force intercepted the smugglers 20 times in the same forest area to recover red sanders logs revealing that the smugglers preferring this route for carrying the logs from inside the forest to outside to smuggle them to other State.