It is also suspected that the attackers may have been provoked by the Maoists to eliminate the ranger, as he was assassinated by the Maoists in the past while serving in the former Warangal town of Mulugu. on the list.
Posted on – Wed 23 Nov 22 at 05:53pm
Kota Gooden: Many forest officials and staff here viewed the killing of forest ranch officer Ch Srinivas Rao at the Chandrugonda mandal in the area on Tuesday as “premeditated murder”.
It is also suspected that the attackers may have been provoked by the Maoists to eliminate the ranger, as he was assassinated by the Maoists in the past while serving in the former Warangal town of Mulugu. on the list. Srinivas Rao, who received three awards including the KVS Babu IFS Commemorative Gold Medal, is said to have been the target of Maoist attacks for his efforts in forest conservation to successfully stop deforestation for planting slope trees.
Errabodu Guthikoya settlement in Bendalapadu gram panchayat of mandal was established in 2015. It has about 120 people belonging to 30 families. They all migrated to the region from Chhattisgarh. Most of the Guthikoyas in Chhattisgarh are believed to be Maoist-influenced, although leftist party leaders such as CPM’s Tammineni Veerabhadram refuted the claim and demanded that all of them not be labeled Maoist.
The brutal attack that left Srinivas Rao dead on Tuesday was markedly different from all earlier clashes between forest workers and podu growers in the region. Forest officials said there may be external provocations behind this.
Srinivas Rao and other forestry workers have in the past prevented local Guthikoyas from attempting to cut down trees planted by the forestry department on 15 acres of forest land, officials informed. Srinivas Rao had to sacrifice his life to protect that land.
The state government has set December 2005 as the deadline to allow cultivation on existing podu land. But they said residents of the Errabodu settlement had been trying to deforest the area.
Meanwhile, a dharna and bandh was observed at the Chandrugonda mandal on Wednesday after Munnuru Kapu Sangham issued a call to protest the killing.
On the other hand, nearly 80 percent of the residents of Errabodu left their place of residence after Tuesday’s incident, leaving some elderly people behind. Julurpad CI Vasanth Kumar visited the village on Wednesday to assess the situation.
