On Wednesday, the forest department team which had gone to remove encroachment on forest land in Fakiradih village of Bhandaria block of Ranka East forest area of the district was attacked by the villagers and the villagers took the JCB taken for removing the encroachment in their possession and started pelting stones on the forest workers.

In the stone pelting incident, Ranka forest area officer Ramratan Pandey, along with a dozen forest workers were injured. After the stone pelting incident by the villagers, the forest workers ran away and saved their lives. The injured forest workers were treated at Bhandaria Community Health Center.

According to the information, the villagers have been encroaching on the forest land of Fakiradih village for years. The forest department had registered an FIR in this matter for encroachment of forest land. Meanwhile, the villagers started construction of Abua housing on forest land.

It was told that on getting the information about the construction of Abua housing, the villagers attacked the forest department team which had come to remove the encroachment on Wednesday.

 After getting information about the incident, Bhandaria BDO Amit Kumar, police station in-charge Chandan Kumar, Ramkanda police station in-charge Surendra Singh Kutia also reached the spot with police force and restored peace.

Ranka forest area officer Ramratan Pandey, forest worker Prabha Kujur, Mamta Kumari, Sangeeta Yadav, Vivek Raj, Dhirendra Kumar, Dharmendra Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Raju Pandey, Devendra Kumar Chaudhary and Prakash Anand have been injured.

South DFO Shashi Kumar, confirming the incident, further said that the administration had received information that the villagers were constructing Abua houses on the forest land, in view of which, when the administration went to remove the encroachment, the villagers started pelting stones, due to which several forest workers were injured. Information is being collected from the forest workers, after which further action will be taken.