OWLS, Haritha condemn stance of Vedma Bojju, Harish Babu

Orugallu Wildlife Society and Haritha have condemned the alleged stance of Khanapur MLA Vedma Bojju and Sirpur (T) MLA Dr P Harish Babu towards forest officials. The organisations expressed concern over attacks and remarks against personnel protecting forests and wildlife.

Warangal: Orugallu Wildlife Society (OWLS) and Haritha, the two city-based voluntary organisations, strongly condemned the attitude and stance of Khanapur MLA and his counterpart from Sirpur (T) Dr P Harish Babu towards the staffers of the forest department.

In a press statement issued by Indarapu Nageshwar Rao of OWLS here on Thursday, he expressed concern that the attacks on the forest department were a looming threat to the future of the environment. He opined that it was extremely unfortunate that forest personnel who were risking their lives day and night to protect forests and wildlife were being attacked in broad daylight on a road.

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Rao further said that the attitude shown by Khanapur MLA towards the forest officials was condemnable. As a member of the state board for wildlife, he is defying orders of the High Court. His acts are an insult to democracy. His statements and threats, such as advising forest officials to sleep in the jungle, should be considered a violation of human rights, he noted.

The voluntary organisations took exception to the remarks of Harish Babu. They stated that the comments of the legislator were deeply worrying. They said that he was inciting the people to attack the forest officials, violating rules. He is trying to provoke the public and mislead them into creating unrest in society for selfish political interests. His remarks are condemnable.

The organisations wanted the Minister of Forest and Environment to respond positively to worrying trends and try to protect the forest and the forest department, especially in the reserve forest, by talking to the people and rulers and resolving the issue from a legal perspective. They urged higher officials of the forest department also to intervene and solve the problems before they worsened.