KALPETTA: The forest department officials arrested the accused in the forest fire incident at Kambamala in Wayanad adventurously. The accused, Sudheesh of Muthumari was arrested by the police and forest department officials last evening. 12 hectares had been destroyed in the fire.

The accused was found when the forest department team led by the DFO was searching the forest after knowing that someone was setting fire inside the forest. The forest department foiled Sudheesh's attempt to escape under the cover of wild elephants.

The suspicion that someone may have set fire arose after two forest fires broke out in the same place in the past two days. While extinguishing the fire yesterday, the task force saw a suspicious person moving through the forest. The forest guards tried to chase him at Kurishukuthi Hill, but Sudheesh escaped under the cover of a herd of wild elephant stationed here. He had a clear idea about the forest. Realizing that the DFO was also there to arrest him in the Muthumari area, he tried to escape through another route, but the officers chased and caught him.

Sudheesh set fire with the aim of completely burning the forest. For this, he set fire to grasslands at intervals of half a kilometer. The forest department believes that Sudheesh deliberately chose a place where the fire could not be easily extinguished. The fire broke out in the inner forest about a kilometer from the populated area. Officials also said that if the fire had reached the populated areas, it would have been a big disaster.

Sudheesh is accused in several cases, including for cultivating ganja. He often reacts strongly against the police on social media. The DFO said the accused is saying things that mislead the forest department and the police. Sudheesh has not yet given a clear answer as to why he set fire to the forest. The police and the forest department are trying to produce the accused in the court today and take him into custody.