By Mubasshir Mushtaq                               

NEW DELHI

Indian police killed at least 20 alleged red sandalwood smugglers in a fierce encounter on Tuesday morning.

According to local media, around 100 smugglers involved in the illegal sandalwood trade attacked police and forest officials in the thick Seshachalam forests of Chittoor district in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh state.

The smugglers used stones, axes and iron rods early as officials conducted a raid after a late-night tip off to curb the rampant wood trade.

Police officials opened fire in retaliation, killing at least 20 wood smugglers at two separate locations in Chittoor district.

Illegal red sandalwood smuggling is relatively common in the border areas of the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. 

The lucrative trade fetches millions of dollars for local traders who illegally export the wood to countries like China and Japan.

Indian law forbids trading in sandalwood as the Sandal trees in southern forests are considered endangered species.

Tuesday’s incident was one of the deadliest encounters involving the smugglers in a decade, since the 2004 killing of an infamous sandalwood smuggler and bandit Veerappan, who was active in the forests of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for more than a decade.