Hyderabad: Two suspected red sanders smugglers from Tamil Nadu were shot dead by police after a group of over 100 smugglers attacked a police party with stones in Andhra Pradesh's Kadapa district on Wednesday morning.
This is the third such incident of killing of red sanders wood-cutters, all suspected to be from Tamil Nadu, over the past one week.
The incident occurred in a forest area under Kuduru railway police station limits of Kadapa between 6.30 and 7 am when the police party combing in the area spotted more than 100 red sanders smugglers, Kadapa District Superintendent of Police Navin Gulati told PTI over phone.
"After noticing the police, the red sanders smugglers attacked them with stones and police in retaliation fired in self-defence killing two of them while others managed to escape from the scene," the SP said.
Search operation is on to nab those absconding. On July 30, a wood-cutter from Tamil Nadu was killed when police opened fire on a group of red sanders smugglers after they attacked the police and forest personnel conducting combing operations in Balapalli forest area of in Kadapa.
Another wood-cutter was killed after police fired on a group of red sanders smugglers when they pelted a police party with stones at a forest area in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district on August 2.
Red sanders grows mainly in the Seshachalam hill ranges spread across Kadapa, Chittoor and Kurnool in the Rayalaseema region and parts of Nellore district in the state.
The wood has huge demand abroad, especially in China and Japan, where it commands a good price.
Red sanders is a valued item in traditional medicines and woodcraft across China, Myanmar, Japan and East Asia and costs about Rs 10,000 a kg in the international market.
