Forest official assures production, transportation of charcoal would be prevented in WKH
NONGSTOIN: Following the exposé by The Shillong Times of illegal charcoal production and transportation in several areas of West Khasi Hills, the Forest (Territorial) department has stepped up vigilance in the charcoal production areas.
Surprisingly, when this scribe followed up the story, it was learnt that Rambrai- Mawlangsu area, the chief charcoal producing area had been excluded from the surprise checking conducted by the Forest officials on Tuesday, putting a big question mark on the whole exercise by the Forest officials.
Voices have now been raised on why Rambrai area was not included in the list of areas checked for illegal production and transportation of charcoal.
Reliable sources also confirmed that around 4 or 5 truckload of charcoal was transported in broad daylight on Wednesday from Rambrai area, while some charcoal smugglers made attempts to take away the remaining charcoal from the trenches dug to burn wood for production of charcoal.
Reliable sources from Rambrai stated that if calculated properly, all the charcoal depots in Rambrai itself would give a total production of around 1000 metric tons of charcoal till date.
Manjunath C., Divisional Forest Officer, Khasi Hills, Territorial Division, who was contacted about the irregular checking on Tuesday, replied on Wednesday that checking would be done the whole week in West Khasi Hills, and stated that Rambrai was next on their radar, but failed to mention the exact date when the checking would be done.
He asserted that Forest officials would ensure complete crackdown on illegal production and transportation of charcoal in West Khasi Hills.
“We have detained over 35 trucks carrying charcoal which had come from Mawmaram route to Umsaw, Mawmi,” he informed.