A 45-year-old man was arrested for allegedly chopping around one tonne of teak wood in Paravamalai reserve forest (RF) near Odugathur town in Vellore on Saturday.
Forest officials said that around one tonne of wooden logs were recovered from his hideout in his Agaram village by a forest team led by K. Venkatesan, forest range officer (Odugathur). Along with his close associates, who are absconding, B. Rajendran, a worker, trespassed into the RF many times for the past few months to check red sanders and teak wood in the dense forest.
During trespassing, they also found that the forest had less surveillance by beat forest officials like forest watcher and forester. “Rajendran is a previous offender with cases registered against him in Chittoor and Arcot on illegal felling of trees in RFs,” Mr. Venkatesan said.
Taking advantage of less surveillance, forest officials said, Rajendran has roped six of his close associates to chop trees including teak wood. Of the total 370 red sanders in the RF, which was planted by the forest department nearly four decades ago as part of the afforestation plan, 10 trees have been cut from the ground level. Most of the chopped trees, which were done in a day, are located around 500 metres from Odugathur Main Road to make it convenient for easy transportation.
At present, Odugathur forest range comprises 13,000 hectares of forest land covering its five RFs. Among them, Paravamalai RF (where the theft has occurred) has the largest plantation of red sanders, teak and other native species. Cases were registered against him. Special teams have been formed to nab others involved in the crime. Further probe is underway.
Published – June 21, 2025 07:46 pm IST
