Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh police personal belonging to the Nayagaon village in the buffer zone of Hoshangabad district’s Satpura Tiger Reserve had to face a weird situation on Wednesday.

At the specified location, hundreds of people gathered to seek the blessings of a Mahua tree that is said to possess healing powers.

The people of the local area were found to be convinced that the Mahua tree was divine, and just with a mere touch of the tree could help them get rid of all issues being health-related or otherwise.

Seeing the crowd the police personnel tried to regulate their movement as they were given the ecological sensitivity of the zone and the possibility of a stampede. As the police tried to bring the crowd into an orderly manner the enraged people turned on them and attacked the police personal who were present at the spot. In the attack by the crowd at least 12 police personal, including Bankhedi police station in-charge SL Jharia, were injured and they had to be admitted to different hospitals across the district.

Mr. Jharia, who had allegedly suffered serious head injuries, is being treated in a private hospital.

Later, when the crowd went out of control additional police personnel were called in from nearby villages to bring the situation under control. The situation was then brought under control.