AP to amend Forest Act to clamp down on red sanders smuggling

Aiming to curb the smuggling of red sanders wood and other criminal activities related to forest resources, Andhra Pradesh government today decided to make the provisions of an existing act more stringent.
The state cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here, today decided to amend the Forest Act.
"Smugglers and others are looting the forest wealth worth crores of rupees. Some tough decisions have been taken to prevent smuggling and other illegal activities," state information minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy said.
During 2002 to 2015, he said, 12,300 cases concerning red sanders wood smuggling were registered, 12,863 metric tonnes of the precious wood were seized and 18,703 people were arrested.

Noting that India is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Reddy said the state government has the responsibility to protect red sanders trees which fall in 'red list' (list of endangered species).
While the tree is found in over five lakh hectares of area, the minister said an estimated 40,000 metric tonnes of wood (worth Rs 40,000 crore) had been looted between 2002 to 2015.

The proposed changes in the Forest Act include provision of filing non-bailable cases against the smugglers, jail terms of not less than five years and fine of not less than Rs three lakh if caught for the first time. If caught again, the punishment would be not less than seven years of jail term and a fine of minimum of Rs five lakh.

Further, the property of the offender would be seized.
For other forest offences, jail term of not less than three months and fine of Rs 5,000 has been proposed for the first-time offenders.
The proposal to amend the Act comes two weeks after the death of 20 people in police firing in Seshachalam forest of Chittoor district in the state.