FRO’s killing a pre-planned murder, feel forest officials

It was also being suspected that the attackers might have been provoked by Maoists to eliminate the forest ranger, given the fact that he was on the hit-list of Maoists when he served in Mulugu of erstwhile Warangal in the past.

Kothagudem: Many forest officers and personnel here are looking at the killing of forest range officer Ch Srinivas Rao in Chandrugonda mandal in the district on Tuesday as a ‘pre-planned murder’.

It was also being suspected that the attackers might have been provoked by Maoists to eliminate the forest ranger, given the fact that he was on the hit-list of Maoists when he served in Mulugu of erstwhile Warangal in the past. It was said that Srinivas Rao, who won three awards, including the KVS Babu IFS Memorial Gold Medal in recognition of his efforts for forest conservation, had become a target of Maoists as he successfully stopped felling of trees in the forests for podu cultivation.

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The Errabodu Guthikoya habitation of Bendalapadu gram panchayat in the mandal was established in 2015. It has a population of around 120 people belonging to 30 families. They all migrated to the district from Chhattisgarh. It was believed that a majority of Guthikoyas of Chhattisgarh were under the influence of Maoists, though Left party leaders like Tammineni Veerabhadram of CPM refute this and have asked not to brand all of them as Maoists.

Tuesday’s brutal attack that led to Srinivas Rao’s death was noticeably different from all the earlier clashes between forest personnel and podu cultivators in the district. There could be outside provocation behind it, forest officials say.

Officials informed that Srinivas Rao and other forest staff had prevented attempts by the local Guthikoyas in the past to cut trees planted by the forest department on 15 acres of forest land. Srinivas Rao had to lay down his life to protect that land.

The State government had fixed December 2005 as the cutoff period for allowing cultivation in existing podu lands. But residents of Errabodu habitation consistently were trying to deforest the area, they said.

Meanwhile, a dharna was staged and bandh was observed in Chandrugonda mandal on Wednesday following a call given by the Munnuru Kapu Sangham in protest against the killing.

On the other hand, nearly 80 percent of the residents of Errabodu left the habitation, leaving behind a few old aged persons in the wake of Tuesday’s incident. Julurpad CI Vasanth Kumar visited the village on Wednesday to take stock of the situation.