Woman forest range officer attacked by villagers in Telangana

TRS member is said to have led the assault near Kagaznagar town.

Kagaznagar Forest Range Officer Anita Chole was injured in a gruesome attack by villagers of Sarasala near Kagaznagar town in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district on the morning of June 30.

Leading the attack, according to forest officials, was KB Asifabad zilla parishad vice-chairman Koneru Krishna, who also happens to be a member of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti and brother of Sirpur MLA Koneru Konappa who is also from the ruling party.

According to Kagaznagar Forest Divisional Officer M. Raja Ramana Reddy, some 40 forest personnel and 30 policemen had arrived with a tractor to plough a 20-hectare degraded forest for a mass tree plantation programme. The land, near Sarasala in compartments 138 and 139 of Kadamba Reserve Forest Block, is part of the compensatory afforestation for the Kaleshwaram project.

As soon as the forest personnel started clearing the area of shrubs and bushes, villagers arrived at the spot armed with bamboo sticks. When the forest personnel refused to go back saying they were only carrying out the government’s plantation programme, the villagers started attacking them with sticks, fracturing Ms. Anitha’s right hand.

Ms. Anitha has been admitted to a hospital in Kagaznagar. District Superintendent of Police M. Malla Reddy called on her and inquired about the incident.

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