Nizamabad: Several forest officials were injured after being attacked by villagers on being stopped from undertaking cultivation on forest land in Telangana's Nizamabad district on Friday. Police have registered a case against 37 people in this connection.
The incident took place in the Kalpol forest area of Mopal mandal of Nizamabad. Angry villagers attacked the forest officials with sticks and pelted stones at them. Forest officials including Forest Range Officer (FRO) Radhika, Section Officer Saikrishna and beat officers Pragathikumar, Prasad and Limbadri sustained injuries and were admitted to the district hospital for treatment.
It has been learnt that the forest officials had rushed to the spot on information that illegal farming activities were being carried out on forest land. When they reached Kalpol village, they found Motilal, a villager and his family members ploughing with a tractor.
They asked the family to stop ploughing and even tried to take possession of the tractor. However, an argument rose between the family and soon a scuffle broke out with several villagers extending their support to Motilal's family.
Finding the situation escalating, forest officials attempted to shoot the chaos on their mobile phones but villagers snatched away the phones. FRO Radhika went aside to inform the police but her mobile too was snatched away and villagers started pelting stones at her.
Soon a team from the local police station including ACP Rajavenkat Reddy, CI Suresh, and SHO Gangadhar reached the spot. Seeing policemen approaching, the assailants escaped.
The police team took the injured forest officials to the district government hospital. SHO Gangadhar said a case has been registered against Motilal, his wife, mother, Hiralal, Ratya, Ganesh, Balu and 30 others. Investigations are underway, he added.
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