Since the smuggling of precious Red Sanders is going on unabated despite setting up of special task force, fencing of the Seshachalam forest, and digging a trench around it as well as  erecting CC camera in the forest to keep vigil on the activities of smugglers, Andhra Pradesh government is planning to confiscate properties of smugglers, once proven involved in the smuggling. This steps is meant to deter the smugglers from reentering the lucrative trade even after  punishment.

Since the present Forest Act is no deterrent, the smugglers find the price of the red sanders in the international market attractive and smuggling worth the risk.

According to sources in the forest department, Smugglers have felled more that 15 lakh trees in the past twenty years and earned roughly Rs 25,000 crore from smuggling the ‘red gold’. Between 2002 and 2015 as many as 12,300 cases booked for Red Sanders smuggling and 12,856 cases have been booked leading to the arrest of 18,703 people.

So, there has been a demand for a separate and stringent legislation to curb the menace of the Red Sanders smuggling from Seshachalam forest, which is the only terrain where the species found in the world.
To make the Forest Laws more stringent, Andhra Pradesh government introduced a bill to this extent. The bill, which is expected to be approved by the Assembly in this session itself, empowers the officials to seize the assets of smugglers, arrested or absconded.

In the existing system, smugglers would not get stringent punishment as it treats the smuggling an ordinary forest offence. As per the new law, the all forest offences would become cognizable and non-bailable offences. The new bill, which seeks to amend the AP Forest Act, 1967, also empowers the state to set up special courts for forest offences. The important aspect of the bill is the provision that can allow the forest department to seize the properties of the persons involved in the smuggling as it is deemed that the assets are acquired by smuggling in Red Sanders. Besides making the offence non-bailable, the bill seeks to impose a jail term not fewer than five years and a fine of Rs three lakh if the smuggler is caught for the first time. If the person is caught for second time in cases related Red Sanders smuggling, according to the bill, the jail term would be seven years with a fine of minimum Rs five lakh.

Another new provision of the bill is the punishment for the owner of the vehicle used for smuggling of the Red Sanders. Similarly, a persons, who is in possession of Red Sanders above 20 kg and fails to notify this to the officials in 180 days,  is liable for punishment.