ANANTAPUR: About 450 sweet lime trees belonging to G. Venkateshwarlu, a Congress follower, were allegedly chopped down by unidentified persons belonging to a rival group of the same party at Vasapuram village in Yellanur mandal of the district in the wee hours of Wednesday.

Venkatesh is stated to be a close associate of Bhogati Narayana Reddy, chairman of Tadipatri Agriculture Market Committee and key accused in the murder case of former legislator K. Suryapratap Reddy. The fruit trees were four - years- old and were just beginning to bear fruit.

According to sources, the farmers has sunk 24 borewells to save his fruit orchard from withering due to lack of water and succeeded. The present loss is estimated to be about Rs. 5 lakhs.

Vendetta

The fresh incident of tree felling is being attributed to unending group rivalry in the region. The incident coincides with granting of conditional bail to Bhogati Narayana Reddy and 14 other suspects in the Sureedu murder case on Tuesday evening by the District and Sessions Court here.

Four other suspects were granted bail by a court at Tadipatri on July 21, as the police have failed to file chargesheet in the case within the stipulated 90-day period.

Warning in vain

The recent warning issued by Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Jain against the orchard fellers did not deter the culprits from continuing the vendetta culture in vogue in the district for nearly two decades now. As per conservative estimates about 25 lakh fruit trees have fallen prey to factional feuds in the district so far.

The same farmer had suffered a similar financial and psychological blow six years ago when his ripe 750 sweet lime trees were felled by rivals.

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