Andhra Pradesh Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (APRSASTF) personnel on Saturday seized two tonnes of ‘A Grade’ red sanders logs worth ₹4 crore, along with a lorry used to smuggle the logs, in a raid at Gunjana forest 25 km from Tirupati.
Addressing a press meet at the Task Force office in Tirupati, Superintendent of Police Ravi Shankar said that during the combing operations, the task force personnel had nabbed two local operatives at Balapalle area on Friday night.
“Upon interrogation, the duo revealed that a group of 30 more operatives were inside the forest range, getting ready to load red sanders logs into a lorry,” Mr. Shankar said.
A raid party was formed immediately which rushed to the spot on Friday midnight.
After an hour of combing, a 12-wheeler lorry, believed to have been hired from Punjab, was detected in the reserve forest zone, bound towards the Tirupati-Mumbai national highway. On seeing the raid party, the driver abandoned the vehicle and disappeared into the forests along with the operatives engaged in loading the logs. It was found that the lorry contained 52 logs of ‘A-Grade’ variety. Combing operations were intensified in the Seshachalam hills to flush out the smuggling operatives. A case was registered and further investigation is on, the SP added.
