600 personnel reach Khandwa for anti-encroachment drive:200 acres to be cleared after recent attack injured 8 forest staff members

In Khandwa, 600 employees from the Forest, Revenue, and Police departments have arrived at the Amakhujri forest in Gudi Range to remove encroachments. Since 7 AM, the team has been engaged in action with 30 JCB machines. Earlier on Sunday, when a team of 40 forest guards went to stop cultivation in the forest, encroachers pelted stones at them. In this incident, 8 forest workers were injured. Following this, officials have raided the forest with a joint strategy. Under the leadership of Additional SP Mahendra Tarnekar, personnel have been deployed in different parts of the forest. DFO Rakesh Kumar Damor is also present at the spot. It should be noted that this year itself, the Forest Department had removed encroachments from 500 acres of land in Amakhujri forest and dug large pits or contours for security. Despite this, approximately 200 acres of land have been encroached upon again. See 3 pictures of today’s action Women were put forward and stones were pelted at forest staff On Sunday, a team that arrived for encroachment removal in Amakhujri forest was attacked by about 400 encroachers who put women in front and threw stones using slingshots. They also attacked with sticks. Some forest workers had their heads injured while others had their ears cut. All the injured are undergoing treatment at the district hospital. Forest workers said, ‘No help received for two hours after the attack’ Jwala Singh, Romank Nayak, Shailendra Yadav, Rajendra Singh Saktawat, Rajendra Bagri, Pradeep Baghel, Chandrapal Tomar and Rahul Lodhi were injured in the attack. All of them are part of the Special Flying Squad recruited in 2025, who were deployed to prevent encroachment in forests. The injured forest workers have alleged that they did not receive help for about two hours after the incident. They say that police and ambulance did not arrive on time.