The novel coronavirus pandemic has forced most people to stay home, and most businesses to stay shut. Large swathes of the country continue to remain under lockdown, even as there are slight relaxations that went into effect from Monday.
But while this affects the daily lives of many, for some people, work had never stopped. First responders and essential service personnel have continued to work through this difficult time, unfortunately, even laying down their lives. The situation had been complicated by the determination of miscreants to continue creating problems.
On Monday, a forest guard was attacked by smugglers while on duty. Forest Guard DS Rana of Gwalior Circle shot dead while he was coming back from a search operation. IFS officer Parveen Kaswan took to Twitter to announce the same.
"While we are dealing with a pandemic, anti social elements are still on their job. Rest in peace soldier," he added in his post.
The attack on Rana is not exactly an isolated incident, even if one looks at the recent past. According to a Kalinga TV report from March 31, a woman forest guard was attacked and injured when she came upon members of the wood mafia in Odisha's Angul district and tried to stop them.
In other related news, on Sunday, a forest guard had allegedly clashed with media personnel in Odisha's Puri district after the latter went close to the Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary in order to document a report to mark one year of Cyclone Fani hitting the state. An inquiry was ordered into the incident after videos went viral on social media.
