OOTY: To avoid confusion during combing operations in the ongoing Maoist control activities, police in the hills have begun to impose restrictions on wearing camouflage print clothes by tourists and hill residents along the forest fringes in and around the Mudumalai tiger reserve (MTR) and Gudalur areas. This restriction will be imposed across the hills in a phased manner.
Stating this, Mr.Murali Rambha, SP of Nilgiris, said that there was a recent incident of suspected movement of Maoist elements in the forest around the Masinagudi belt bordering the MTR. But the search eventually proved futile, he added.
After this, it came to be known that tourists wearing camouflage clothes and trekking in the forest led to confusion among police and foresters.
While police think that tourists or locals in camouflage clothes inside the woods are foresters, the latter think that tourists or locals in such attire are police on combing operations, he noted.
A survey in the Masinagudi and Gudalur areas show that many tourist guides and those who work in tourist resorts generally wear camouflage clothes and even ask tourists to wear such prints on trekking.
Hence, police decided to impose restrictions on such attire along the forest in the Masinagudi belt along MTR and in Gudalur areas, Mr.Rambha explained.
