Tie-up with states in sanders drive

Tirupati: The director generals of police of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have agreed to extend their co-operation to Andhra Pradesh police officials to check red sanders smuggling.

They arrrived at this decision at a conference held in January 2015 in Tirupati.

The Andhra Police officials need the help of their counterparts in the three other southern states to nab red sanders smugglers living there and to adopt a co-ordinated approach to check their unhindered operations.  

Wood cutters, hailing from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and neighbouring Karnataka, were arriving in lorries andvans and cutting red sanders trees in the Seshachalam forest, and taking them out in collusion with smugglers from Tirupati to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Then, they were exporting the red sanders to various countries.

The Tamil Nadu state police agreed to set up check posts at the border villages between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The police here will meet the Karnataka and Kerala police too in this regard.

They feel they have to adopt a multi-pronged approach because when the police in Chittoor district were raiding smugglers' houses, their accomplices were seeking refuge in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The officials think that stepping up their vigil on the  movements of vehicles at checkposts in the Seshachalam forest area and keeping an eye out for woodcutters would help prevent red sanders smuggling effectively.