Andhra Pradesh government had decided to deploy drones to crackdown on red sandal smuggling in the Seshachalam forests. These drones will be fitted with high definition cameras. The feed will be sent to 24X7 control room which will take care of smugglers if they try to intrude.
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It is estimated that more than 50000 Crore worth Red Sanders were smuggled out of the state in the last 10 years. There are even allegations on brother of former Chief Minister, Kiran Kumar Reddy regarding the involvement in the smuggling of this precious wood.
Under Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra Pradesh government has taken the Red Sandal Smuggling very seriously. A special task force was formed to deal with the smugglers and several 100s of Crores of smuggled wood is recovered so far by them. There is a huge outrage over the encounter of 20 smugglers in Seshachalam forest, but Andhra Pradesh government is still keen on leaving no loop hole in protecting the precious wood.
