bihar:Tribals attack forest office to rescue minor
Provoked by the detention of a 12-year old, angry tribals attacked a forest office in Adhaura, 300 km southwest of Patna, ransacked it and beat up forest guards, before ‘freeing’ the boy on Thursday.
Forest range officer Nagendra Sharma said the minor was spotted cutting and transporting wood from wildlife sanctuary along with others near Jhapra on Wednesday and detained.
Angry villagers reached the forest office to demand the release of the boy Thursday morning and when turned down, broke the main gate and ransacked the office and the guest house, while destroying property, officials said. In the process forest guard Vinod Kumar Singh was brutally assaulted.
Divisional forest officer Satyajeet Kumar registered an FIR against local leader Chhathi Devi, Rajesh Singh, Balwant Yadav, Manish Kumar and four unknown assailants, with Adhaura police station.
The villagers, however, claimed that collecting firewood was a traditional right of forest dwellers but the forest guard assaulted the boy and also his mother who pleaded for his release. That angered the villagers, they said. Station house officer, Adhaura, Shyam Dev Singh also said that the assault on the minor was hat provoked the tribals. “I have called the boy and the woman to register their statement”, Singh said.
Roma, forest right leader and general secretary, National Union of Forest Working People, said that the forest department ban on traditional resources of tribal and jungle people in wildlife sanctuary had created several problems.
