Maoists take 35 foresters hostage, release them

Armed Maoists took 35 forest officials hostage in south Gadchiroli on Saturday night but freed them the next morning, forest authorities said on Monday.

The Maoists did not hurt the hostages, who were at their field camp near Somnur in the Sironcha forest division, but sent a veiled warning in a letter to the forest department that it should not trouble villagers in Sironcha. This is the first time in years that the Maoists acted against forest officials.

The incident comes close on the heels of the department’s aggressive patrolling against teak smugglers in Sironcha’s Pranhita river valley. A forest official said smuggling is often carried out under Maoist patronage. 

“A patrolling party of the Asaralli forest range led by ground officer ST Choure had gone to the Somnur camp near the confluence of two rivers,” JS Pathak, deputy conservator of forest, Sironcha, told reporters after his men were freed.

“They were resting when about 50 Maoists surrounded the camp around midnight.”

The Gadchiroli police said the rebels took away the forest officials’ weapons and ammunition — SLRs, airguns and bullets.

Recently, armed forest officials reportedly chased some smugglers, leading to the death of three men allegedly involved in smuggling. The incident turned the villagers against the forest department. Led by MLA Deepak Atram, the villagers put pressure on the department to transfer Somnur official Digambar Balki, who was at the forefront of the anti-smuggling drive.