Peddapalli: Ramagundam police used a Geo-tagged drone camera for the first time to locate timber hidden in the sand, along the river Godavari. The unearthed teak logs were shifted to the forest depot.
Ramagundam police unearthed the teak logs hidden in the sands of the Godavari shore with the help of a drone camera near Arenda and Vilochavaram villages in Manthani mandal.
Timber smugglers had hidden the logs by covering them with sand to avoid the attention of people and used to shift them to an identified place at night in bullock carts.
The police suspected that the timber smugglers were hiding the teak logs under the sand. Ramagundam police raided illegal timber stock points at various places and found these stock points to be run by the notorious timber smuggler Edla Sinu.
The timber buried under the sand was unearthed with the help of an earth moving machine. Police seized 10 teak logs and arrested seven involved in the smuggling.
Police had collected information about the persons behind the teak wood smuggling and the saw mills to which they were supplying the wood and the routes used.
Subsequently, the police remained vigilant. Police identified Edla Sinu the main culprit from Potharam village in Manthani, in addition to 20 other timber smugglers in Jannaram, Chennur, Kotapalli and Neelvai areas.
Ramagundam police commissioner V. Satyanarayana said that the main accused in the timber smuggling, Edla Sinu was allegedly transporting teak wood for some years from Chattisgarh, Maharashtra located on the other side of the Godavari and also from Manthani, Mahadevpur in Old Karimnagar district'.
The commissioner said that Edla Sinu was supplying teak wood in bullock carts and vehicles to Godavarikhani and Manthani, Kataram, Karimnagar and Hyderabad. He further added that Edla Sinu was absconding since a case was registered against him and two police teams were formed to arrest Sinu.
