Woman Forest Official Thrashed by Mob in Telangana
A female Forest Range Officer (FRO) in a village in Telangana was beaten up by an angry mob for planting trees on a barren land.
On June 30, in Sarsala village, Telangana C. Anita is a Forest Range Officer (FRO). She along with 20 forest department officials, went to plant saplings in a depleted forest in the region. This was part of an afforestation campaign. Villagers protested this and said that they owned the land. The villagers then informed the Zilla Parishad vice-chairman Koneru Krishna Rao. Mr. Rao is the younger brother of TRS Sirpur MLA Koneru Konappa. Mr Rao then arrived at the spot with a group of his supporters. He then attacked Anita.
A video of the incident, which went viral. In the video Anita was seen trying to get away from the mob by climbing on a tractor. However, Mr Rao chased her and hit her on the head repeatedly. She was quickly rescued by officials. The Forest officials said that they had expected such problems. This is why they came along with 30 policemen. However they police failed to protect Anita and did nothing. Anita said that, she has reached this post through hard work. She studied in a government school and always wanted to do good for the society. She said she respects the uniform she wears and just wants to help people. She said that even animals are not beaten like she was. When asked why he did this, Rao he said that The forest department is terrorizing Adivasi farmers and confiscating their land forcefully by saying that they just want to plant trees. Rao said that he just wanted to help the people. He has resigned from his post and said that the assault was not intentional. 16 people including Rao have been arrested till now. The investigation is still going on.
