DHAKA: Twenty red sanders smugglers were killed in an alleged encounter with a joint team of special police and forest personnel in the Seshachalam forests of Chittoor district in India’s Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of Tuesday.

The incident took place at Etagunta and Vacchinodu Banda hamlets, deep in the forest in Chandragiri mandal. While nine smugglers died in the firing at Eetagunta, 11 were killed at Vacchinodu Banda.

This is the biggest-ever police encounter involving smugglers of red sanders in Andhra Pradesh.

Red sanders are highly endangered plant species that thrives only in the forests of Seshachalam and in a few pockets in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The AP government has intensified its operations against smuggling of red sanders.

According to special task force deputy inspector general Kanta Rao, the police-forest team had to open fire after a large number of red sanders smugglers attacked them with stones, axes and knives.

He said the police-forest team took up combing operation in the Seshachalam forest on a tip off that hundreds of red sanders smugglers and coolies had gathered in the forest area to fell down the protected trees.

When the police-forest party came near the smugglers, the latter resorted to attack.

‘The teams fired in self-defense. Nine smugglers died at Eetagunta and 11 at Vacchinodu Banda. The search is on for the smugglers, who had escaped from the forest after the incident,’ DIG Kanta Rao told mediapersons after visiting the sites of encounter, reports The Times of India.

BDST: 1259 HRS, APR 07, 2015
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