TURA: Illegal felling of trees and smuggling of the timber from what remains of the thin forest cover in Garo Hills continues unabated with one truckload of freshly cut consignment seized in East Garo Hills district even as another has gotten away in West Garo Hills.
Members of the Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP) belonging to the Samanda circle in East Garo Hills intercepted a truckload of timber concealed deep inside the Rongrenggre reserve forest on Sunday.
The timber smugglers had hidden the truck near Rongsak Golabari village and planned to ship the consignment in the dead of night when members of the NGO found it and handed it over to the forest department.
However, a similar illegal consignment that was seized in the Hollaidanga reserve forest in Tikrikilla area of West Garo Hills by forest officials was stolen the same night.
The Mahindra pik up truck (ML08 E 2018) laden with the forest product, allegedly taken from the Dibru Hill forest reserve in the area, was seized by forest officials in Hollaidanga on Saturday morning. The driver and occupants of the vehicle had fled the scene during the seizure.
Shockingly, and in an embarrassment to the forest department, the vehicle with the timber was hauled off on the same night from the Forest Beat House by the smugglers while the forest staff was sound asleep.
The rampant smuggling of timber through the plains belt region has been taking place for a long time with several illegal saw mills having mushroomed across the Chibinang-Phulbari belt to take advantage of the unrestricted flow of forest produce brought over by the smugglers from different forests of Garo Hills.