Jail term for renting vehicles to smugglers

Chittoor district collector Dr Narayana Bharat Gupta said those who rent their vehicles for red sanders

smuggling

activities will now have to spend time in jail as red sanders smuggling laws have become tougher.

The district collector along with chief conservator of forests S Saravanan, Chittoor SP S Senthil Kumar and other officials of the district administration took part in the red sanders preservation committee meeting held at BIOTRIM facility in Tirupati on Tuesday.

During the meeting, PCCF Saravanan pointed out that the endangered red sanders plantations are spread across at a stretch of 5,000 kms across Seshachalam forests.

“Though 36 base camps have been set up across forest areas to effectively curb red sanders smuggling activities, 1,210 metric tonnes of red sanders were seized in 149 cases registered since April 2019,” he expressed concern.

PCCF Saravanan said the state government could raise a revenue of Rs 1,700 crore by disposing of 6,000 tonnes of red sanders logs in about 13 auctions held in the past. At present the forest department has a stock of 5,000 metric tonnes of seized red sanders logs.

Collector Dr Narayana Bharat Gupta asseted that the state government was committed to putting an end to the smuggling.