India : Maoists take control of forestland in Palakkad

MALAPPURAM: Police have received evidence that Maoists, with the support of tribal people, took control of forest land, along Kerala and Tamil Nadu border, by cutting down hundreds of trees A series of video clips, released by police, show that the armed Maoists and tribal people are jointly removing trees in forest and installing CPI (Maoist) flag in the area.

Police suspect that the area shown in the video is Agali forest region of Palakkad district.
According to police, the visuals were recovered from the digital documents that were seized after the recent police encounter with Maoists in Nilambur forest in which two Maoist leaders, Kuppu Devaraj and Ajitha, were killed.

Police has also released a note, recovered from the encounter site, which says that the Maoists were encouraging tribal people living in Kerala-Tamil Nadu border area to encroach 120 acres of forestland.
According to police sources, this method of encroaching land by destroying forestland and establishing a circle of tribal area, is being followed by Maoists groups in their strong holds.

Police source also said that the visuals show that the Maoist group is mainly focusing on Palakkad forest areas for their major programmes and activities and the group has already scaled up their campaign activities.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kozhikode/maoists-take-control-of-forestland-in-palakkad-cops/articleshow/56293642.cms