The men tasked with protecting government forests were beaten with bricks, stones and a sickle while on routine patrol. Their phones were snatched so they couldn’t call for help. They barely escaped with their lives. And when they went to the police — nothing happened. Not for a week, not for a month, not even after four formal complaints reached the Senior Superintendent of Police himself. It took seven full months for a simple FIR to get registered.
This is the story of forester Narendra Singh of Chandrabani Section, Asarodi Range, Dehradun.
The Day Everything Went Wrong
It was an ordinary Saturday — 26 July 2025. Narendra Singh and his colleague, Forest Constable Neeraj Kumar, were out on their regular beat through Reserved Forest Chandrabani, Compartment No. 3, Khasra No. 2067. This stretch falls under Section 4 protected forest land, meaning construction of any kind here is flatly illegal.
Midway through the patrol, something stopped them cold. Right on the boundary of this protected land, near the house of Pratap Singh alias Chhotu, son of Bhola Singh of Chandrabani Choyala, a crew was busy laying a permanent brick wall. Encroachment, in broad daylight, on forest land.
Narendra Singh did what any forest official on duty would do — he walked up to Pratap Singh and asked him to stop. That’s when things turned ugly fast.
About 15 metres away, Anil Mishra, son of Tarun Mishra, was sitting with five other men. The moment they heard the forest guard speak up, the whole group descended on the two officials. What followed was not a scuffle — it was a mob attack. Kicks, punches, bricks, stones, and a sickle-hammer rained down on both men. To make sure no one could be alerted, Narendra Singh’s mobile phone was ripped from his hands. Trapped, outnumbered and bleeding, the two forest officials did the only thing they could — they ran toward the jungle and somehow made it out alive. Their injuries were serious enough to require treatment at District Hospital Dehradun.
Four Complaints, Seven Months, Zero Action
What happened after the attack is, in many ways, worse than the attack itself.
The very same day, Narendra Singh dragged himself to the ISBT Police Chowki and filed a written complaint. Nobody acted on it. The Forest Range Officer of Asarodi Range then officially wrote to the same police chowki on 6 August 2025. Again, silence. When that too was ignored, the Divisional Forest Officer, Dehradun Forest Division, escalated the matter all the way to the Senior Superintendent of Police on 13 August 2025. The letter was received, acknowledged perhaps, and then forgotten. A final attempt was made on 6 September 2025, when a report was dispatched by post to Kotwali Patel Nagar Police Station. That too went nowhere.
Four complaints. Three months of trying. And still not a single FIR.
It was only on 25 February 2026 — a full seven months after the assault — that Police Station Patel Nagar finally registered FIR No. 0159. The case has been booked under three sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023: Section 121(2) for obstructing government work, Section 191(2) for rioting, and Section 304(1) for causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon. Investigation has been handed to Sub-Inspector Ashish Kumar.
Both accused — Anil Mishra and Pratap Singh alias Chhotu — are residents of Chandrabani Choyala, Patel Nagar, Dehradun, practically neighbours of the very forest they chose to encroach upon.
The Question That Demands an Answer
Forest guards are not desk officers. They walk into remote stretches of jungle every single day, often alone or in pairs, to protect land that powerful and well-connected people want for themselves. When one of them gets ambushed, beaten half to death and robbed of his phone — and then spends seven months being turned away from every police station he approaches — what message does that send?
The FIR being registered now is the bare minimum. What still needs to happen is an honest reckoning with why it took this long, and who is responsible for that silence.
