Youth dies in encounter, irate villagers resort to rasta roko

Youth dies in encounter, irate villagers resort to rasta roko

Baripada, Aug 16 : The death of one person during an encounter between the forest staff and timber smugglers at Patbeda near Dhobanisole, about 55 kms from here, triggered tension leading to rasta roko agitation by irate villagers.


Baripada Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Bejoy Kumar Panda today said the trouble started when the smugglers assaulted forest guard Chintamani Mohapatra, manning the Dhobonisole Checkgate, and forced him to leave the checkgate yesterday. One Sabuja Vahini volunteer was also injured.

Earlier, the timber smugglers gheraoed a team of forest officials, led by Bangriposi Range Officer Ram Chandra Murmu, and demanded release of two smugglers arrested by the team.

As Murmu did not agree to the demand, he was severely beaten up by a group of smugglers. The Range Officer initially opened a blank fire from his revolver only to disperse the crowd.

As the crowd was still defiant and went on attacking Murmu and other forest staff, he opened fire for the second time and a bullet hit one Jagadish Giri (30) of Dhobonisole village.

Sources said Jagadish was rushed to the Bangriposi hospital but he succumbed to the bullet injury. This triggered tension in the area and the irate villagers, instigated by an organised group of timber smugglers, staged a ''Rasta Roko'' on the Mumbai-Kolkata National Highway six near Bangriposi as a mark of protest.

The forest officials arrested two smugglers, identified as Sreedhar Dalei and Basanta Kumar Behera, and seized Sal and Piasal sizewood harvested illegally from Simlipal Wild Life Sanctuary. They were booked under sections of Orissa Forest Act and Wildlife Protection Act.

Mr Panda said although the offences were non bailable, they were released on bail on-the-spot due to mounting pressure. The authority also fulfilled four point charter demands of the smugglers under public pressure and on the plea of maintenance of law and order.

The demands included cash compensation of Rs 50,000 to the next of kin of Jagdish, an employment to the victim's brother in the Forest Department, immediate release of the two arrested smugglers and arrest of Range Officer Ram Chandra Murmu under murder charges.

The Bangriposi police has registered a case under section 302 IPC (murder) against Mr Murmu.

Link - http://www.newkerala.com/news2/fullnews-21809.html

It is an unfortunate situation that is being played out virtually every day in our forests.

Our forest guards being less in number either due to vacancies or posts not sanctioned and being poorly equipped cannot stand up to such hooliganism. It is sad that under the pretext of maintenance of law and order, law itself is broken. Strict action should be taken against the timbre smugglers and rioting people.

Sabyasachi

It is very sad that a forest officer has been booked for murder, who was actually discharging his duty & fired in self defence or to save his team members from hooligans.
If this is the case who will take risk to safe guard our forests ?

Ravindra Yadav