Forest Martyrs’ Day observed in Adilabad, officials pay homage

Forest officials across Adilabad, Mancherial, Nirmal and Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts paid homage to martyrs on Forest Martyrs’ Day. Floral tributes, blood donation camps and sapling watering marked the occasion.

Adilabad: Forest martyrs were paid rich tributes during the Forest Martyrs’ Day observed across erstwhile Adilabad district on Friday.

In Adilabad, District Forest Officer Prashanth Patil paid floral tributes to the martyrs and hailed the slain officials for their supreme sacrifices. He felicitated kin of the martyrs and watered saplings planted in memory of the slain officials last year. He observed two minutes’ silence to mark the homage.

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Similarly, Kawal Tiger Field Director Shantharam along with district judge Veeraiah recounted martyrdom of the staffers at a programme conducted at Gandhari Vanam on the outskirts of Mancherial town. They stressed the need to ensure personal safety while protecting the wild. They told the forest personnel to adopt certain strategies to safeguard their lives in case of threats from smugglers and poachers.

Shantharam and about 100 staffers donated blood at a blood donation camp held jointly by Indian Red Cross Society and the forest department to mark the occasion. Collector Kumar Deepak and DFO Rahul Jadhav, FDO Sarveshwar and FROs Rathnakar Rao, Santosh, Purnachandar, Dayakar, DyRO P Santosh, FSOs, FBOs and representatives of IRCS took part in the programme.

Meanwhile, similar events were witnessed across Nirmal and Kumram Bheem Asifabad districts. The participants expressed concern over incidents of violence against the personnel for protecting the forest cover. They sought the government to equip them with weapons to thwart the attacks.