Red sanders massacre - What next?

The recent massacre of 20 persons engaged in illicit tree-felling off the famed pilgrim centre of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh has sent shockwaves all over the country. Even the international media are playing up the horrendous story. Protest demonstrations are the order of the day.

All indications are it was a fake encounter. There is virtually no indication whatsoever that there was any clash between the woodcutters and the police.

At the moment Tamil activists are making it out to be a case of persecution of Tamils by a ruthless Telugu-speaking Andhra police. Yet others see it as merely a manifestation of state arrogance, yet another instance of gross human rights violations.

Of the 20 gunned down 12 hail from Jawadhu hills and their environs 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javadi_Hills

Thanks to the precious red sanders things have changed fast

This will give us some idea of the significance of the red sanders the victims were felling.

http://www.theglobaljournals.com/ijar/file.php?val=July_2013_1372685574_7f787_122.pdf

But what many observers seem to have failed to grasp is that much ghastlier things could be in store for the people of Jawadhu hills and adjoining areas across the border.

A crucial piece of information to get at a clearer picture of the story is this - http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/jawadhu-hills-to-killing-fields/article7080008.ece

In their enthusiasm to damn the Andhra Police and of course also to be politically correct, most reporters didn’t bother to find out how the communities dependent on red sanders were doing. But the unfazed Hindu reporter says categorically the villages are indeed flourishing.

Some of the killed were from the neighbouring Dharmapuri region where things are indeed pretty bad http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/tn-woodcutters-killed-in-andhra-pradesh-are-lone-bread-winners/article7084424.ece

But the Jawadhu hills residents, eseentially tribals are doing well for themselves. They were not impoverished communities. If anything their relative prosperity in contrast to the situation elsewhere in the region is striking – well-built houses, even SUVs, tribals entering mainstream, their children taking to education and so on.

Last year the state was agog with stories of Mohanambal, a folk dancer of adjoining Vellore and from whom  crores of rupees in currency and a huge stash of gold were recovereḍ.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Red-Sanders-Kingpin-Surrenders/2014/06/20/article2289474.ece

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140614/nation-crime/article/red-sanders-queen-hard-nut-crack

It is not as if everyone in the region is a Mohanambal, no. Actually the entire belt has been hit by drought for four successive years now. Of course the state and central governments would not care lesṣ. The AIADMK government or the opposition shedding crocodile tears now have rarely highlighted the problems of the farmers. Living  has become so precarious. Only the Tiruvannamalai and its neighbourhood are not turning into another Vidarbha, they just get along in any which way they could – suicide as protest is still to make its appearance here.

For those reeling from drought , felling of red sanders does offer a lucrative option. The relatively flourishing communities of the Jawadhu hills are acting as a magnet for those of the nieghbourhooḍ. Never mind the risks involved, one can hope to escape dire poverty. Say a weeklong  outing in the forests could ensure one a minimum of Rṣ50,000. Depending on the circumstances and oneś own stamina the returns could be a lot more.

Indeed one of those killed in the Seshachalam forests of Andhra Pradesh a few days ago was a farmer from the foothills, hit hard by unrelenting drought and callous governments. He had started building a house when he was making a decent living out of agriculture, but was stalled midway. Even the plastering he couldn’t complete and chose to join the sanders gang, but that was to prove a tragic mistake.

Apart from the relatively prosperity of some Jawadhu settlements, what is relevant to note here is that those getting into illicit felling are becoming increasingly brutalized. Even imprisonment doesnt seem to discourage them - over a thousand are in AP jails, it is said, though no concrete data are available.

And so much is at stake they are willing to fiercely defend their territory, as it were. Repeatedly foresters have been attacked, some even killed.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Two-forest-officials-killed-by-red-sanders-smugglers/articleshow/27439217.cms

Such ferocious attacks were becoming regular in the last couple of years, apparently at the instance of the smuggling kingpins. Much fiercer retaliations were inevitable.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/the-sad-business-of-smuggling-red-sanders-wood-114081400763_1.html

https://www.academia.edu/7732495/who_are_the_Red_Sander_Smugglers_

Besides as the Business Standard report notes there is this political angle in the person of Chandrababu Naidu – he holds the red sanders barons responsible for the abortive attack on him in

his last reign and has sworn revenge.

A look at this sequence will tell you why the Seshachalam forest massacre took place

Oct 1, 2003: N. Chandrababu Naidu survives claymore mine blast at Alipiri near Tirupati. 

Nov 9, 2012: Two of the accused in the case, Maoist leader Panduranga Reddy alias Sagar (alleged mastermind) and Kollam Gangi Reddy, a contractor and red sanders smuggling kingpin (for supplying arms and ammunition) acquitted. April 5, 2014: Gangi Reddy arrested in Kurnool district for red sanders smuggling
May 15: Gangi Reddy gets bail from High Court.
May 18-21: Reddy believed to have fled the country using fake passport
May 23: Chandrababu Naidu writes to AP governor ESL Narasimhan that government deliberately allowed Reddy to escape. “Despite the information that Sri Kollam Gangi Reddy is threat to me, the police have failed to keep a watch on the accused and allowed him to escape to Dubai.” 
May 27: While moving HC for cancellation of Reddy’s bail, government informs court that the smuggling kingpin escaped to Bahrain, and that he has links with international smuggler Sahu Bhai of Chennai, who is in Dubai. 
June 8: N. Chandrababu Naidu sworn in CMJanuary-February 2015: AP DGP J.V. Ramudu says police task force formed to crack down on red sanders smuggling
Feb 23: Kollam Gangi Reddy detained on Interpol notice at Port Louis, Mauritius, as he is about to board a flight to Colombo
Feb 24: DGP Ramudu says Reddy faces 27 cases, will be brought back to IndiaApril 3: DIG M. Kantha Rao, who heads Task Force (Red Sanders Operations), says representation given to State government seeking permission to open fire on red sanders smugglers; awaiting nod for order that would involve NO PROCEEDINGS, CASE OR PROSECUTION(strange plea, as five or six incidents had already taken place since 2011 of red sanders smugglers and woodcutters being gunned down, three of them in 2014 itself).
April 7: 20 gunned down near Tirupati

https://www.facebook.com/krishnamurthy.venkataramanan.9?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

Venkataramanan Krishnamurthy ( A senior editor with The Hindu)

April 9 at 8:20pm 

And here is something on Gangi Reddy himself: 

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/the-rise-and-fall-of-gangi-reddy/article6967812.ece

Now the AP government is seeking to take over the red sanders trade, finding it lucrative

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/andhra-pradeshs-u-turn-lift-ban-on-red-sander-trees-felling/articleshow/46885951.cms

Where does it leave the Jawadhu settlements or those who had found in red sanders a  way out of the poverty trap. Nowhere. Bleaker than ever. Even those few lakhs who had been able to build their lives anew would now be thrown to the wolves .

Now they can’t even dream of setting foot inside the forests, but there is alternative livelihood available either. They will die a slow, painful death.

That is a tragedy activists should be concerned with and seek to pressure the callous governments, state and central, to do whatever possible, to ensure the people of the region a decent living.