A team of forest officials on Wednesday morning arrested three of the six accused in a case of illegal tree felling from the Sugandhagiri Cardamom Project, one of the largest resettlement projects in Asia launched exclusively to rehabilitate bonded tribal people in Wayanad by the end of 1970, near Vythiri in the district.
The arrested accused were identified as M.K. Prince, 26, Kaniyampatta, Abu Thahir, 42, Vythiri, and E. Sudheer Kumar, 62, Kozhikode. Those arrested are timber traders, said Forest department sources.
The team, led by Kalpetta range forest officer K. Neethu, seized a crane from the traders used for loading axed timber.
Three forest officials, including K.K. Chandran, section forest officer, Kalpetta, R. Johnson, and A. Balan, forest watchers, were suspended a few days ago in connection with their involvement in the incident after a departmental enquiry.
The Forest department had issued permission to cut only 20 trees that were posing a threat to the houses of residents under the project in January, but it was reported that the accused cut down more than 130 trees from the area in the pretext of the order.
The department had registered cases against six persons, who were absconding after the incident. Meanwhile, the District Principal Sessions Court rejected the accused’s application for anticipatory bail on the ground that the accused would destroy evidence.
A high-level meeting chaired by Forests Minister A.K. Saseendran constituted a four-member special investigation team (SIT) of its vigilance wing to probe the illegal felling of trees on Tuesday.
