ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Naidu orders inquiry into 'wild' party of TDP politician

Shireen in Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has ordered a high-level inquiry into the killing of rare migratory birds for a politician's feast at Kolletikota village in Kolleru wildlife sanctuary even as the forest department registered a case under the Wildlife Protection Act against a Telugu Desam Party functionary and three others.

The meat of 62 migratory birds was served at the dinner, which was attended by leaders of different political parties and businessmen on Sunday (March 21).

Forest officers registered a first information report at Kaikalur in Krishna district on Tuesday. They also registered cases against TDP leader and liquor merchant Madhyanapu Balaram, his father M Ramdas, and Krishna District Council high school teachers Undrametla Venkateswara Rao and K Subba Rao under sections 9, 27, 29 and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act.

Conservator of Forests Ramesh Kalgati has begun an inquiry into the feast. Forest officers visited the high school where the dinner was hosted and seized the skins of the slaughtered birds, which included coots, whistling teals, spotted ducks and some rare birds from Siberia which migrate to Kolleru lake in this season.

The remains were produced before a magistrate at Kaikalur on Tuesday and permission was sought to send them to the Bombay Natural History Society laboratory for forensic tests and identification of the species killed.

Preliminary investigations by the forest department indicate that 27 political functionaries attended the dinner, all but three of them from the TDP.

Balaram hosted the dinner where 60 kilos of bird meat and huge quantities of chicken, mutton and fish were served.

Balaram, a confidant of Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister K Vidyadhara Rao, reportedly aspires for a TDP ticket for the assembly election later this year.

Gudivada revenue divisional officer K Ranga Reddy also visited the village to look into the matter. Krishna District Collector B R Meena ordered the suspension of assistant headmaster Venkateswara Rao and teacher Subba Rao of the high school for allowing the controversial dinner in the school premises.

A search has been launched for the four accused who have been booked under different sections of the Wildlife Act for trespassing into a wildlife sanctuary and hunting endangered species. Seasoned poachers who hunted the birds are also being identified.

The Kolletikota dinner is the second such feast organised by TDP functionaries where the meat of endangered wildlife was served. In November 1998, the state government had announced an inquiry by a senior Indian Administrative Service officer into the feast organised in Marlakunta village of Khammam district on October 13 of which five ministers and Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi partook.

Major Irrigation Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, the butt of the Opposition's criticism for the feast hosted by his supporters, had denied that he or the other ministers ate the meat. Balayogi, too, denied having partaken of the dinner.

The chief conservator of forests (wildlife) conducted an inquiry into the Marlakunta feast in which the meat of peacock, deer, sambhar (Indian antelope) and wild boar was served and registered cases against the organisers under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Tell us what you think of this report