The death of an alleged teak smuggler in an armed encounter with the forest department in Vidisha causes anger in tribal communities and despair among the foresters in Madhya Pradesh Bhopal,ISSUE DATE: Sep 19, 2022 | UPDATED: Sep 9, 2022 20:20 IST Timber seized from smugglers stocked at the Lateri forest depot; (Photo: Mujeeb Faruqui) It is a weekday, but the forest department’s range office in Lateri, a town in Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha district, bears a deserted look. Almost 20 days after the department’s staff were booked for murder over the death of a youth, things seem to have changed forever. In a mix of low morale and fear—both of the government whose forests they are to protect, and members of the Bhil tribal community to which the deceased youth belonged—the staff members at the range have stopped wearing their uniforms. They have also surrendered their official guns, refusing to carry them until the government guarantees them some legal protection. Edited By: Arindam Mukherjee Published On: Sep 9, 2022 Source link