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Red sanders smuggling continues unbated
The tribal population in the district, which depends on natural resources and the forest wealth, is a much worried lot these days as they face a threat to their livelihood due to the extinction of forests.
Karimnagar: The tribal population in the district, which depends on natural resources and the forest wealth, is a much worried lot these days as they face a threat to their livelihood due to the extinction of forests. Dense forest areas will become a thing of the past if the indiscriminate felling of trees for smuggling of red sanders is not stopped immediately.
Karimnagar, which occupies the third place in the State after Adilabad and Khammam with regard to the area covered by forests, may soon lose it. The forest wealth is getting depleted fast due to the rise in the activities of red sanders smuggling. A gang in Manthani is luring the tribals with money to help them in felling the trees. As a result, the forests are getting destroyed.
After looting the forest resources in Karimnagar, the smugglers have set their eyes on the neighbouring states of Maharashtra and Chattisgargh. They selected Gadchiroli in Maharashtra and districts like Dantewada, Bastar, Bijapur, Narayanpur and Sukma in Chattisgargh where they are enticing the tribals with money to cut the red sanders trees. The red sanders mafia in the Manthani division have built an empire of their own. The mafia has been deeply entrenched and the tribals have been hired as workers to cut down the trees. If anybody raises an objection, he is attacked mercilessly. For this reason the officials concerned turn a blind eye to the smuggling activity.
Even the media persons are threatened with dire consequences if they tried to expose the activity.
Some of the people in Manthani have alleged that the red sanders smugglers have links with influential people in the previous Congress governments and for this reason, they could carry out the smuggling activities.
Recently, when some of the officials tried to nab the smugglers, they were attacked. Speaking to the media here on Saturday, they lamented that they were forced to remain silent though the forest wealth covering hundreds of acres was being destroyed. They said while forests were being destroyed in Gadjiroli district in Maharashtra and the issue was raised in the State Assembly in 1999 by the Mool MLA Shobha Tai , the Maharashtra government took prompt action and raided the forest areas with a large contingent of police forces and seized the red sanders logs worth crores of rupees. However, in contrast, the Telangana State government has not done anything in this regard even though large scale smuggling activities were taking place in Karimnagar. Moreover, the smugglers were getting support of the tribals and other locals.
The people of the district have appealed to the TRS government to take some drastic action against the smuggling activities to prevent the destruction of forests.
By: Ch Gopalakrishna
