Five alleged smugglers of red sanders were charred to death when two vehicles which they were travelling in rammed into a truck in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district in the early hours of Monday, the police said.
While four of them travelling in a sport utility vehicle were burnt alive along with the vehicle, one more person from another car died while undergoing treatment at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Kadapa town.
Two others, who were grievously injured are undergoing treatment in the hospital. All the deceased and injured are believed to be smugglers from Salem in Tamil Nadu, who were transporting red sanders from the forests of Bhakarapet to their state. Several logs of red sanders worth lakhs of rupees were also gutted in the fire in the cars.
Kadapa superintendent of police K K N Anburajan told Hindustan Times that the incident happened at around 3.30 am at Gotur village near airport on Kadapa-Tadipatri road on the outskirts of the city.
“Bhakarapet forests are known for smuggling of red sanders by people from Tamil Nadu and of late, we have intensified operations to prevent smuggling. We have kept ambush parties of police at two check posts on the road. The smugglers coming in two vehicles saw the police forces at one of the check posts and tried to take a detour on the airport road. We did not chase the vehicles, as we knew that they would definitely be caught at another check post,” the SP said.
Both the cars were travelling at high speed and did not notice a truck coming out of a construction venture in the area. “They rammed into the diesel tank of the truck resulting in its explosion. Both the cars caught fire and were burnt completely,” he said.
Four persons travelling in the first car could not come out and were charred to death, as flames engulfed the vehicle, while three others who were travelling in another car managed to escape with injuries. One of them died while undergoing treatment at the hospital,” Anburajan said.
Police and fire service personnel rushed to the accident spot and doused the fire using two fire tenders. “We have registered a case and are investigating,” the SP said.
Red sanders, a precious wood which is an endemic species confined only to the Seshachalam forests spread across Chittoor, Kadapa and parts of Nellore and Kurnool, has been the prime target of timber smugglers for several years.
The wood fetches crores of rupees in the international market, particularly in China and Japan, where it is used for making cosmetic products, furniture, musical instruments and even drugs. One tonne of the wood costs Rs 20 lakh locally, but it fetches around Rs 1 crore in the international market.
Because of its high value, timber smugglers from Tamil Nadu have been indulging in large scale cutting and smuggling of the wood and exporting the logs abroad. They are engaging trained wood cutters and transporting them through dense forests into the Tamil Nadu borders. The wood cutters risk their lives to enter forests and smuggle the red sanders, because they are paid around Rs 1 lakh per tonne towards labour charges.
The Andhra Pradesh government has constituted a Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) in 2014 to periodically conduct combing operations in the forest areas and check the smuggling of the wood. There have been frequent encounters between the task force and the smugglers.
