Forest personnel from the Dainadubi and Kharkutta range offices and police raided at least five illegal timber mills in the district and seized huge quantity of timber and machineries.
The raids were carried out throughout the day in various places in North Garo Hills including Mendipathar and Resubelpara. The areas raided and seized have been identified as Dobu Apal, Resu Dapa, Resu Daram, Soinang and Soksan. Two other mills that were raided earlier and machinery seized, remained closed as per forest officials who paid a surprise visit to the mills earlier yesterday.
The amount of seized timber in yesterday’s raid was approximately 150 CFT, though an exact measure has not been undertaken due to paucity of time.
“A huge amount of timber has been seized along with machinery from these mills. The operation was led by our team and supported by policemen from the district. We will continue our crackdown on illegal timber as well as these clandestine saw mills,” DFO of North and East GH territorial division, Sathish KS said.
Timber smuggling has been one of the biggest menaces in the Garo Hills region with various reserve forests in the region being under direct threat. The lack of personnel as well as the lack of firepower in the face of well equipped and connected smugglers has led to most battles being extremely difficult for the forest department.
