COIMBATORE: Data procured from the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department in the aftermath of five Tamil Nadu woodcutters drowning in Kadapa district, revealed that a whopping 10,664 people from Tamil Nadu have been arrested in the neighbouring state in the past three years.
As many as 10,558 of them were arrested between Jan 2015 and Dec 2017, by the Andhra Pradesh police, Forest Department and Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force, for illegal woodcutting in forests on the inter-state border.
Of the 106 people arrested so far this year, 80 were nabbed in January alone. Around 20 per cent (2,000) of those arrested by the Andhra Pradesh officials were from Tiruvannamalai, Salem and Vellore.