TURA: As many as five illegal saw mills operating in the Chibinang region of West Garo Hills have been dismantled by teams of the state forest department on Thursday morning.
Forest personnel raided several locations along the Chibinang region, which lies close to the border with Assam and has been the main transit point for illegal smuggling of timber, and found five factories operating in the illegal trade.
Two sawmills were dismantled at Moulakandi village and another one at Chibinang during the raids. Another sawmill that was being run in a forest area was also sealed while in another mill the smugglers managed to get away by taking the main sawing machine used to cut the logs.
According to forest official, Satish KS, IFS, who took part in the raid, the forest teams launched the operation after obtaining specific information on their locations.
As many as 130 logs of illegal timber, many of which belong to high value trees, were confiscated during the operation by the forest teams.
The operation comes a day after the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council conducted a similar raid in the Rajabala-Phulbari region and dismantled some of the illegal sawmills despite alleged interference by a sitting MDC from the area.