ADILABAD: A day after forest beat officer D Swapna was injured in an attack by farmers while she was clearing an encroached piece of forest land, she was discharged from the Mancherial Government Hospital on Wednesday. Swapna had sustained injuries on her neck and hand in the altercation.
Tuesday’s incident between the police and the farmers were part of an ongoing conflict regarding the ownership of nearly seven-acre of forest land in the range 386 and 387. One Daravath Balu Naik is said to have encroached the said land parcel and has been growing crops and planting trees in the land for the past few years. During last Kharif season, Naik had sown seeds on the land which were later removed by forest officials.
Later, in September this year, Naik planted mango saplings, which were again removed by the forest department. On Tuesday afternoon, Forest Range Officer (FRO) Gopichand Sardar, deputy FRO Babu Patelkar and beat officer for compartments 386 and 387 D Swapna visited the spot with other staff.
They had received a tip-off that Daravath Balu Naik, along with his wife Mounibee, and their sons Srinivas and Ramesh, were once again planting mango saplings. Officials then stopped the plantation and removed over 150 saplings.
According to information, Ramesh was making a video of this when beat officer Swapna tried to grab his phone and stop him. Ramesh then heckled her and Swapna sustained injuries on her neck and hand.
Later, the police filed cases against Balu Naik and the others, who were then taken into custody.
Forest dept did not seek protection: CP
Adilabad: Commissioner of Police V Satyanarayana told the media that the forest officials did not inform or seek protection from the police, before taking action against the land encroachers. “Coordination between the forest and police officials is necessary. We had recently solved a few disputes together,” he said. After the altercation with the farmers, which the police had not been informed of beforehand, the forest officials filed a complaint, after which the accused was arrested.