But this has raised a vital question about the security in the forests in the eastern belt of the state, spreading from Sabarkantha and Banaskantha in the north to Valsad in the south.

Even after the police revelation, which is based on the confessional statements of the accused arrested by the crime branch, no steps have so far been initiated either by the police or the Forest department to keep a tab on suspicious

activity in the forest areas, particularly in central Gujarat.

Although the Forest department has deployed beat guards and security personnel in the jungle areas to keep a round-the-clock vigil, their primary job is to check the timbre mafia from smuggling wood. Moreover, they are not trained to handle such security issues.

The free access of people to the forest barring the protected area is another problem. Even the protected area does not have any measure to monitor human activities.

A senior forest official said that the department had never encountered such a thing in the past, so they were unprepared. But he admitted that it would be too difficult to monitor human activity in the forests round the clock with access points being everywhere.

When questioned if the department is contemplating to initiate measures to ensure that miscreants do not misuse the forests in future, Principal Secretary (Forest) S K Nanda candidly admitted that it is not practically possible to stop people from entering the forests.

“There are many tourists who visit the forest. How can we stop them? The forest is spread over a vast area and it is not possible to man every inch of it. Moreover, there is no gate system to regulate entry and exit of the people,” Nanda said.

The Halol-Pavagadh forest range falls under the jurisdiction of the Special Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Vadodara Range, Pramod Kumar.