Tribals tie forest officer to tree, thrashes him

Attack in protest against plantation drive

An irate group of tribal people allegedly tied a forest beat officer to a tree and thrashed him when he along with two other field staff visited Chintaguppa reserve forest area in Dummugudem mandal to supervise pre-plantation activities on Monday. The incident sparked commotion for some time at Chintaguppa, a remote tribal village in the border mandal, on Monday afternoon. Trouble broke out when a group of tribal people, claiming themselves as “podu cultivators”, allegedly obstructed the forest staff from taking up preparatory works for a plantation drive under the “Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA),” sources said.