PHULBARI, Feb 20: Showing the extent to which unscrupulous criminals have been denuding the entire lower hills of Garo Hills, a total of 15 semi-trucks were required to complete a seizure of illegal logs that were present in a saw mill in Nimaikata under Phulbari Police Station.
As per reports, a GHADC Forest department patrol noticed a truck travelling along with illegal timber through the Chibinang area and followed it to the mill where it was to be dropped.
The mill, as per the department officials, was fully functioning with as many as 10 labourers working. They, however, ran when they saw the forest team enter the premises.
The entire plain belts starting from Rajabala and continuing up to Tikrikilla and beyond has been a den of illegal timber smuggling over the years with more than 200 of such setups rumoured to exist. While some have small setups, most of these replicate the seized mill with hundreds of trees being worked on a daily basis.
The GHADC team informed that the entire stock in the illegal saw mill was seized and it required 15 pick-up semi trucks to carry the seized items.
The raid began at 8 am of Monday morning and continued for some time.
However, none near the illegal saw mill were willing to give information on the owner of the saw mill.
“We wanted to register a case but the person who we suspect to be the owner was not informed on by another near the site. We seized everything present in the area and brought it back to our office. We will look at what needs to be done next,” informed Phulbari ranger, Moonlight P Marak.
He added that the fight against such illegal setups would continue in the future as well.
