TRS MLA Koneru's brother, FRO’s attacker now member of wildlife board
HYDERABAD: TRS MLA Koneru Konappa, whose brother led a mob attack on a woman forest officer in June this year, is now a member of the State Board for Wildlife for Telangana, which was reconstituted on Wednesday. As per the Wildlife (Protection) Act, the SBWL should have three members of the State Legislature.
Sources in the forest department said that the MLA had lobbied hard to be appointed as the chairman of the State Forest Development Corporation but the post was given to former electoral rival of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Gajwel, Vanteru Pratap Reddy. So, Konappa was accommodated in the State Wildlife Board. Well-known tiger conservationist Imran Siddique, who was in the earlier board constituted in 2015 does not find a place this time.
The list of eminent conservationists, ecologists and environmentalists in the board includes industrialist Kartheek Raju Chintalapati, general partner of the iLabs group. S Raghavender, co-founder of the Green India Challenge, a sapling plantation challenge made famous on Twitter by TRS Rajya Sabha MP J Santosh Kumar also figures in the list.
Well known lake protection activist BV Subba Rao is also named member of the board. Among the NGO representatives Anil Kumar Epur, Chairman, WWF India, also finds a place.