Police fire in air after red sanders woodcutters attack them

Police fired in the air when a group of about 40 red sander woodcutters allegedly attacked them in Seshachalam Hill forest near here today.
A constbale of the Anti-Smuggling Taskforce was injured in the attack by the woodcutters, who fled the scene after police fired in the air at Mungili Pattu, 30 km from here, police said.
Reserve Police Sub-Inspector Bhaskar, who led the operation, told mediapersons that the taskforce rushed to the forest area on a tip-off and found 40 persons climbing down the hills.
When police warned them to surrender, the woodcutters allegedly started attacking them by throwing stones and axes at them from an elevation on the hills.

"In self-defense we had to open fire one round in the air that dispersed the mob who later managed to escape," he said.
However, four men from Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu were arrested. About 40 red sanders were also recovered from the area, he said.

The injured constable had been admitted to a government hospital here, he said.
A huge contingent of police and taskforce team headed by DSP S V Sridhar Rao is combing the area.
A group of 32 men from Tamil Nadu, suspected to be red sander woodcutters, were arrested in a joint operation by police and the taskforce personnel at Venkatapuram near here last month.

Twenty woodcutters from Tamil Nadu, were killed in an alleged encounter in the Seshachalam forest on the western side of Tirumala hills in April Last year.