Zone of death
It is a 25-km death zone where even cops don't venture. Routinely, dead bodies are seen hanging from acacia trees and the area is littered with human bones. Victims are rarely identified and never ever recovered alive. Averaging 25 bodies a year, this stretch has gained unprecedented notoriety, reports Vijay Upadhyay
In February 2006, bodies of a love couple were found hanging from two trees a few meters apart. As no suicide note was found, their death was termed an "honour killing by their families". The bodies had been stripped and were so decomposed that they could not be identified. This, however, was not the first time that bodies were found hanging from trees in a small stretch of forested land which is commonly known as Agra's Zone of Death.
A 25-km strip of Acacia trees located on the border of Agra and the adjoining district of Hathras has gained strange notoriety. The reason? The forest is full of dead bodies and no policeman dares to enter these ravines to recover them. These bodies slowly rot or are left to scavengers to feed on.
As one walks through the forest one can see a number of empty nooses hanging from trees. Bones and skeletons are scattered all around the forest.
The situation has been murky for over a decade now and fresh bodies keep appearing on the trees and are reported by local wood-picking women who come across them regularly.
On an average, 20 to 25 bodies are recovered from the forest every year. This year alone, more than 10 bodies have been found till date. Though most bodies are beyond recognition, one of the three found this month was identified as that of Mata Prasad's, a resident of the New Agra area who used to work at a milk-dairy. He had been beaten to death and then hung from the tree by criminals who had abducted him for unknown reason. villagers around the forest, however, say that Prasad was a victim of a local gang who merely wanted to instill fear in the rest of the villagers so that their activities were not reported to the police by locals.
During the day the forest is alive with women picking wood but as the sun sets, they scurry out and the criminals become the dark lords of the jungle. The criminals don't belong to any major gang. They are mostly petty criminals engaged in kidnappings, robberies and road hold-ups. They hold their victims at gun point in these forests and after robbing them of all their belongings, kill them and leave their bodies to rot. Residents of nearby villages claim that there have been numerous cases where the victim was partially mutilated before being hang in a bid to attract wild scavengers who wipe out the evidence of the crime.
The notoriety of this thorny thicket of trees can be assessed by the fact that the National Highway Authority of India sought to construct an elevated road bypassing this forest to prevent road holdups on the Agra-Kanpur section of the NH-2 which earlier passed through the forest.
However, according to locals, the Jharna forest had lost its notoriety after the development of the Agra-Kanpur highway passing through the forest and the number of dead-bodies being recovered in the forest had dropped significantly.
But last week, the recovery of a couple of bodies, apparently murdered inside the forest, set the wheels rolling in Agra and for the first time in decades, a combined operation of Agra and Etmadpur towns was launched for the recovery of all bodies either hanging on trees or dumped in the Jharna drain by criminals.
Jaivir, a local villager who was apprehended by the forest department for illegally cutting trees, said: "Whenever we report to the police that we have found another body, no one comes looking. Then wild animals take over and after having their fill, scatter the bones remains all over the forest. The Khar Nala is where most bodies are dumped. This is the densest part of the forest and almost impregnable.
"And even though we are secure outside the forest, inside we are at the mercy of criminals. One of the reasons why the criminals leave the bodies hanging on the trees is to create a fear psychosis among us," Jaivir added.
According to Agra DSP Asim Chowdhary, "the wood-picking women are of great help to the police as they know almost all the paths inside the forest. It is these women who inform us of the bodies but by the time we reach the spot most of them disappear."
In the first phase of combing, only two bodies have been recovered, though a number of bones and skulls have been found which have been sent for forensic analysis to find out if they can be identified, Chowdhary added.
Besides the fact that the local police had totally washed its hands off the combing operations, the joint team, too, was reluctant to go deep into the forest. After combing just 16 sq km of the 25 stretch, the operation was abandoned.
Gautam Singh, Circle Officer, UP Forest Department, who patrolled the forest searching for illegal wood-cutters, said: "There are many villages in the vicinity of the forest, which are home to these criminals. Though we patrol the area to keep them at bay, we have had little success mainly due to staff shortage. Our men come across evidence of camps in the forest and remains of dead animals like hyenas and wolves who feed on these bodies," Singh said.Quite a stretch of crime, one must say.
In February 2006, bodies of a love couple were found hanging from two trees a few meters apart. As no suicide note was found, their death was termed an "honour killing by their families". The bodies had been stripped and were so decomposed that they could not be identified. This, however, was not the first time that bodies were found hanging from trees in a small stretch of forested land which is commonly known as Agra's Zone of Death.
A 25-km strip of Acacia trees located on the border of Agra and the adjoining district of Hathras has gained strange notoriety. The reason? The forest is full of dead bodies and no policeman dares to enter these ravines to recover them. These bodies slowly rot or are left to scavengers to feed on.
As one walks through the forest one can see a number of empty nooses hanging from trees. Bones and skeletons are scattered all around the forest.
The situation has been murky for over a decade now and fresh bodies keep appearing on the trees and are reported by local wood-picking women who come across them regularly.
On an average, 20 to 25 bodies are recovered from the forest every year. This year alone, more than 10 bodies have been found till date. Though most bodies are beyond recognition, one of the three found this month was identified as that of Mata Prasad's, a resident of the New Agra area who used to work at a milk-dairy. He had been beaten to death and then hung from the tree by criminals who had abducted him for unknown reason. villagers around the forest, however, say that Prasad was a victim of a local gang who merely wanted to instill fear in the rest of the villagers so that their activities were not reported to the police by locals.
During the day the forest is alive with women picking wood but as the sun sets, they scurry out and the criminals become the dark lords of the jungle. The criminals don't belong to any major gang. They are mostly petty criminals engaged in kidnappings, robberies and road hold-ups. They hold their victims at gun point in these forests and after robbing them of all their belongings, kill them and leave their bodies to rot. Residents of nearby villages claim that there have been numerous cases where the victim was partially mutilated before being hang in a bid to attract wild scavengers who wipe out the evidence of the crime.
The notoriety of this thorny thicket of trees can be assessed by the fact that the National Highway Authority of India sought to construct an elevated road bypassing this forest to prevent road holdups on the Agra-Kanpur section of the NH-2 which earlier passed through the forest.
However, according to locals, the Jharna forest had lost its notoriety after the development of the Agra-Kanpur highway passing through the forest and the number of dead-bodies being recovered in the forest had dropped significantly.
But last week, the recovery of a couple of bodies, apparently murdered inside the forest, set the wheels rolling in Agra and for the first time in decades, a combined operation of Agra and Etmadpur towns was launched for the recovery of all bodies either hanging on trees or dumped in the Jharna drain by criminals.
Jaivir, a local villager who was apprehended by the forest department for illegally cutting trees, said: "Whenever we report to the police that we have found another body, no one comes looking. Then wild animals take over and after having their fill, scatter the bones remains all over the forest. The Khar Nala is where most bodies are dumped. This is the densest part of the forest and almost impregnable.
"And even though we are secure outside the forest, inside we are at the mercy of criminals. One of the reasons why the criminals leave the bodies hanging on the trees is to create a fear psychosis among us," Jaivir added.
According to Agra DSP Asim Chowdhary, "the wood-picking women are of great help to the police as they know almost all the paths inside the forest. It is these women who inform us of the bodies but by the time we reach the spot most of them disappear."
In the first phase of combing, only two bodies have been recovered, though a number of bones and skulls have been found which have been sent for forensic analysis to find out if they can be identified, Chowdhary added.
Besides the fact that the local police had totally washed its hands off the combing operations, the joint team, too, was reluctant to go deep into the forest. After combing just 16 sq km of the 25 stretch, the operation was abandoned.
Gautam Singh, Circle Officer, UP Forest Department, who patrolled the forest searching for illegal wood-cutters, said: "There are many villages in the vicinity of the forest, which are home to these criminals. Though we patrol the area to keep them at bay, we have had little success mainly due to staff shortage. Our men come across evidence of camps in the forest and remains of dead animals like hyenas and wolves who feed on these bodies," Singh said.Quite a stretch of crime, one must say.
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