Una crackdown on forest mafia, 80 vehicles with wood, other products seized in 3 months

Rajesh Sharma

Una, June 27

A tug of war is ongoing between the Una Forest Division and the forest mafia as instances of plundering and looting forest produce continue unabated. Despite the Forest Department claiming they have tightened the noose around the adversary with night-long vigils, 80 vehicles carrying illegally procured forest produce were impounded in the last three months.

The department had been successful in seizing 80 trucks carrying illegal forest produce, adding that these included three vehicles carrying khair wood, two carrying pine resin and the remaining had different types of wood.

Una Divisional Forest Officer Sushil Rana said field level officers, including forest guards were on a high alert and late night vigils were being carried out regularly until the wee hours. He said the heightened vigil was yielding results, but the forest mafia keep changing their modus operandi, forcing the department officers to change their plans accordingly.

The DFO said, “While there are no large organised gangs indulging in the illegal activities on government forest land, there are small groups of locals, who cut forest produce, sell these to pre-decided vendors and go dormant for some time before launching another swift operation.”

Rana said the forest produce smuggler gangs these days include mobile spotters on motorcycles, who keep tab on vehicles of the Forest Department, besides other unknown suspicious vehicles. The illegally felled forest produce is carried to different locations and hidden under forest cover, from where these are lifted in batches, he said.

Giving an example, the DFO said last Monday, acting on a tip-off, some village link roads in the Bangana Sub-Division were kept under surveillance. Forest guards were deployed at various locations to keep watch on smugglers. He said two motorcycles were seen moving to and fro on the link roads and their registration numbers were noted down by the forest staff.

At about 4.15 am, a pickup truck was intercepted in the area by the Forest Department team and logs of khair wood were recovered from the vehicle, said the DFO. He added that the source of wood was traced to a government demarcated protected forest area in Dhiunsar village and the value of the produce was calculated at Rs 1.73 lakh. He said the registration numbers of the mobile spotters have been reported to the police in an FIR.

Rana said the mafia has also been smuggling forest produce buried under crates of vegetables and fruits that are transported from the district to the neighbouring states and the Forest Department was keeping a check on such vehicles at the inter-state barriers. He said people involved in the smuggling generally belong to different places and are not related. He said the department was trying to figure out how these people were getting organised into this crime.

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